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SCENE OF THE GREAT EXPLOSION ON BANDAISAN 

(July 15, 1888). 

-The stcain-douds in the foreground mark the main line of fracture ; the lakes 
in the distance were formed by the eruption. Between the two is a differ- 
ence of lei'el of about tliree thousand feet. 



Frontispiece. 



JAPAN'S INHERITANCE 

THE COUNTRY, ITS PEOPLE, 
AND THEIR DESTINY 



BY 

- E. BRUCE MITFORD, F.R.G.S. 



WITH TWELVE MAPS AND PLANS AND SEVENTY-FIVE 
ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS 



NEW YORK 
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 

1914 






/ // 



(All rights reserved) 



PREFACE 

Wanted— the truth about Japan. An American 
writer, after complaining of " the world-wide 
false impression of Japan " which has been given 
by " the eclogues of European visitors," declares 
it to be the " vital concern " of his countrymen 
to know as much as possible of " nothing but 
the truth." ' 

Whether or not he succeeded in replacing 
" the world-wide false impression " by one 
nearer the mark— and no Occidental taking up 
a strongly anti-Japanese attitude can success- 
fully interpret the spirit of this nation, the leader 
of the East— Mr. Price Collier is right in saying 
that knowledge of things Japanese is of real 
concern to the American people. With them, 
in large measure, it rests to determine the manner 
of the meeting of East and West. But other 
Western nations, scarcely less interested in the 
future of Japan, are asking the immortal ques- 

" Price Collier, The West in the East (191 1). 

I A 



Preface 

tion, "What is truth?'* and waiting for the 
answer. It is in the hope of contributing, in 
a humble way, to the satisfaction of this demand 
that I have put together these pages — the results 
of travels and observations extending over a 
period of ten years. 

Some good folk contend that enough has 
already been said of Japan. Any addition to 
the multitude of books thereon is, in their view, 
an action calling at least for apology. By way 
of excuse, then, I would point to the fact that 
the men who, by long residence and study, are 
eminently fitted to write about Japan have, as 
a rule, specialized in some particular branch of 
the subject — history, literature, folk-lore, politics, 
art. The description of the country, qua country, 
has been left to the casual visitor. He, in faith, 
has given us of his impressions freely ; but is 
it not inevitable that such works should lack 
authority? They may, as Count Hayashi says, 
be " very amusing, and useful for killing time," 
but " the ideas gathered from their statements 
are more injurious than useful as aids to forming 
a judgment on events occurring in the Far East." 

Quot homines, tot sententice. Between the 
enthusiasm of the writer who declares that " the 
scenery surpasses the imagination of man . . , 

2 



Preface 

no fault can be found either with the country 
or with the people," ^ and the prejudice of the 
critic who condemns Japan as a Nazareth out 
of which no good thing can come, there must 
exist a happy mean. My hope and aim is to 
aid in its finding. I have sought herein to set 
down about the country *' nothing but the truth," 
and, about the people, a few of the things that 
matter. If a clearer conception be thereby 
gained of what is admittedly a beautiful land, 
of that most complex entity, "the Japanese 
soul," and of the part marked out for Japan in 
the Ear Eastern scheme of things, my labour 
will not have been in vain. 

Every student of Japan is deeply in debt to 
the works of Brinkley, Chamberlain, and Rein 
— myself as much as any. The Transactions of 
the Asiatic and Seismological Societies of Japan 
have also furnished information, the value of 
which I gratefully acknowledge, Eor *' photo- 
graphic sympathy " my thanks are due to 
Professor W. B. Mason, Professor Immanuel 
Friedlander, Masatoshi Mori, Esq., and other 
kind friends. Illustrations bearing on various 
aspects of Japanese life have been kindly sup- 
plied by Messrs. Ogawa and Lev/is, of Tokyo 

* Rittner, Impressions of Jafan (1904). 
3 



Preface 

and Yokohama respectively. I have also to 
thank the Editors of the Field, Fry's Magazine, 
Vanity Fair, and the National Review for permis- 
sion to reproduce photographs or portions of 
articles which appeared originally in their pages. 
I leave to the last my greatest debt of all — 
to the generous aid and sympathy of the late 
Rev. Arthur Lloyd, of Tokyo, without whose 
encouragement this work would not have been 
undertaken. Integer vitce scelerisque paras. 
For him at least Shakespeare's lament must be 
reversed. Evil was there none ; the good lives 
after him. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

PREFACE . . . • • ■ • 5 

CHAPTER 

I. THE CALL OF THE LAND . . . -13 

Japan's story — Couleur de rose — First impressions — 
Environment and character. 

n. TIMES AND SEASONS . . . -25 

Vagaries of climate — Rainfall and flood — Unconforming 
seasons — When to see Japan. 

IIL WAYS AND MEANS . . . . • S^ 

Travel in the interior — The Japanese bed — Basha and 
Hnrikisha — Accidents will happen. 

IV. THE TYPICALLY JAPANESE LANDSCAPE . . 62 

The raw material of the Japanese landscape — "Soft" 
contours and "little" — The Sankei — Nikko. 

V. LAKE AND STREAM . . . . -79 

Mischievous rivers— The Sandai-ka — Rapids — Lakes ot 
depression — Fuji's mirrors. 

VI. THE JAPANESE HIGHLANDS . . -97 

Elements of sublimity — The great upheaval — In the wild 
— Lakes " while you wait." 

5 



Contents 



CHAPTER PAGE 

VII. Fuji's life and lore . . . .114 

Curves and similitudes — Legendary origins — Climbing a 
devotional exercise — Sunrise from the summit. 



VIII, CRATERS, ALIVE AND DEAD . . . I33 

Volcanoes and the supernatural — Cones independent and 
parasitic — Variety of formations — Recent activity. 



IX. SOME TYPICAL VOLCANIC ASCENTS . . 150 

Oshima and its Somna — Asama's detonations — A fatal 
outburst — Bandai and the unexpected — The within-the- 
mountain hut — Aso's great crater — A place of suicide. 

X. EARTHQUAKES . . . . . I9I 

Superstitions and " nerves " — Historic shocks — Causation 
and prediction — The " offspring of the earthquake." 

XI. THE SPAS OF JAPAN .... 20g 

A volcanic legacy — Conventions at a discount — Composi- 
tiop and temperature — " Hells." 

XII. THE GATEWAY OF THE SOUTH . . . 225 

Kyushu's past — Matsuri — Fantastic landscapes — Tobacco 
culture on volcanic soil. 

XIII. ACROSS THE STRAITS .... 242 

A new land — Ainus and pit- dwellers — The Japanese 
" coaster " — A succulent weed. 



XIV. COUNTRY LIFE IN JAPAN .... 255 

All work and no play — Capitalist owners — Travel-clubs — 
Physique of the country folk. 

6 



Contents 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XV. CENTRES OF POPULATION .... 270 

The "Estuary Gate" — Locomotion and "magnificent 
distances" — The typical city — A midnight fire. 

XVI. EDUCATION AND RELIGION . . . 29O 

The inculcation of patriotism — Students and missionaries 
— Wanted : a Religion — " Morals" and the Rescript. 

XVII. THE POLITICAL FABRIC .... 309 

" Spionitis " and militarism — Steps towards constitu- 
tionalism — The Genro and the Diet — Vox populi. 

XVIII. JAPAN AS A COLONIAL POWER . . . 329 

Fruits of war — State Socialism — Formosa and Korea : a 
contrast — The Japanese official. 

XIX. WHERE EAST MEETS WEST . . . 345 

First results — Mixed marriages — Attitude of the West — 
The Japanese abroad — The " Yellow Peril." 

XX. A PEEP INTO THE FUTURE . . . 366 

Japan's mission — Is her "soul" equal to it? — Pacific 
problems — The demand for equality. 

INDEX ...... 381 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



SCENE OF THE GREAT EXPLOSION ON BANDAISAN . Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 



THE SPEAR OF NINIGI ..... 

THE PEAK OF THE HEAVENLY SPEAR, FROM THE NORTH 

CHERRY-TREES IN BLOOM, UYENO PARK, TOKYO 

CHERRY BLOSSOMS UNDER SNOW, YOKOHAMA PARK . 

A SUMMER SCENE, CENTRAL JAPAN 

A DIAGNOSIS — BY A DOCTOR OF THE OLD SCHOOL 

IN A HOKKAIDO PORT : SAMPAN GOING OUT TO STEAMER 

CRYPTOMERIA AVENUE, NEAR NIKKO 

BASHA OUTSIDE INN, HOKKAIDO 

TRAVEL BY PACK-HORSE . 

SOFT CONTOURS : " PLAINS OF HEAVEN," NEAR KAMAKURA 

GRAVE OF WILL ADAMS AND HIS JAPANESE WIFE, NEAR 
YOKOSUKA . , . 

MAN AND WIFE ROCKS, FUTAMI, ISE 

THE TORII AT MIYAJIMA . . . . 

AMA-NO-HASHIDATE, "THE LADDER OF HEAVEN" 

MATSUSHIMA : SOME OF THE 8oo ISLANDS 

SOFT CONTOURS IN A VOLCANIC REGION, HAKONE 

THE GORGE OF YABAKEI, KYUSHU 

9 



14 
14 
28 
28 

34 
34 
48 
48 
48 
48 
68 

68 
68 
70 
70 
70 
76 
76 



Illustrations 



RAPIDS OF THE FUJIKAWA .... 

RIVER SCENE, WESTERN JAPAN .... 

ONAMI-IK^, CRATER LAKE, KIRISHIMA . 

CLIFF SCENERY, ENOSHIMA, SOUTH END 

KEGON FALL, NIKKO ..... 

YUMOTO SPA, NIKKO ..... 

LAKE YUMOTO AND SHIRANESA^ 

HODAKAYAMA, FROM THE TOKUGO-TOG^;, JAPANESE ALPS 

KAMIKOCHI VALLEY AND THE AZUSAGAWA 

ONTAKE'S CRATERED RIDGE .... 

LAKE TOYA AND THE NEW CONES OF USU 

SULPHUR-DIGGERS ON AZUMAYAMA, NORTHERN JAPAN 

FUJI FROM THE SOUTH-WEST, SHOWING HOEIZAN 

FUJI, FROM LAKE MOTOSU .... 

FUJI, FROM SHOJl LAKE ..... 

PILGRIMS ON FUJI ..... 

THE SUMMIT-CRATER OF FUJI .... 

VOLCANOES ARE SACRED : TEMPLE AT FOOT OF DAISEN, 
WESTERN JAPAN ..... 

TORII MARKING APPROACH TO ESAN VOLCANO, HOKKAIDO 

VOLCANIC STUMP, SAMBONTAKE, ISLES OF IZU 

FUMAROLES ON THE FLOOR OF TAKACHIHO, KYUSHU 



FACING PAGE 
86 



TRIPLE-CRATERED SHIRANESAN, WITH BOILING CENTRAL LAKE 1 46 

VOLCANIC CEMENT ON YAKEGATAKE, JAPANESE ALPS . I48 

OPEN FOR INSPECTION : BREACHED CRATER OF ESAN . 148 

ERUPTION OF USUDAKE (1910) : FOREST OF BLASTED PINES 148 

10 



86 

86 

94 

94 

94 

94 

98 

98 

98 

no 

110 

iid 

118 

130 

130 

130 

136 
136 
146 
146 



Illustrations 



FACING PAGE 

THE SOMNA AND CENTRAL CONE OF MIHARA (OSHIMA) . 156 

THE CRATER OF MIHARA : EASTERN WALL . . .158 

ASAMA FROM KARUIZAWA : A " PUFF " . . . . 166 

AN UNPLEASANT PROMONTORY : DYKE PROJECTING INTO 

CRATER ....... 166 

THE LAVA STREAM OF 1 783 . . . . . 166 

LAKE HIBARA FROM THE SUMMIT OF BANDAISAN . . 176 

THE CRATER OF ASOSAN : AN EXPLOSION . . . 184 

GORGE OF THE SHIRAKAWA, ASOSAN . . . .188 

THE NEW VENT ON ASOSAN . . . . .188 

GENESIS OF A MOUNTAIN SPA : NOBORIBETSU, HOKKAIDO . 212 

ASHINOYU SPA : HAKONE MOUNTAINS . . . .212 

AN ALFRESCO SHOWER : NOBORIBETSU . . . . 2l6 

BATH-HOUSE IN MID-STREAM : SHUZENJI, IZU . . . 2l6 

ISLAND-VOLCANO OF SAKURAJIMA, KAGOSHIMA BAY . . 238 

"THE HORSE'S BONE," TAKACHIHO .... 238 

KOMAGATAKE FROM ONUMA LAKE . . . .252 

THE DOME OF TARUMAI ...... 252 

DARBY AND JOAN . . . . . . . 264 

IN THE RICE-FIELDS ...... 264 

A FISHING VILLAGE, IZU COAST .... 264 

A RURAL POSTMAN ...... 264 

ONE OF TOKYO'S PRINCIPAL THOROUGHFARES, NEAR NIHON- 

BASHI ........ 274 

OUTSKIRTS OF YOKOHAMA, LOOKING SOUTH . . . 274 

A FIRE-BRIGADE DISPLAY ..... 286 

II 



Illustrations 



STREET SCENE, KOBlfc ..... 

STUDENTS AT WORK, KEIO UNIVERSITY, TOKYO 

A JAPANESE WEDDING ..... 

CALLED TO THE COLOURS 

A GEISHA DANCE . . ... 

THE TEMPLE OF HACHIMAN, GOD OF WAR, KAMAKURA 



FACING PAGE 

. 286 

. 296 

. 296 

• 314 



FUNERAL OF COMMANDER HIROSE, ONE OF THE PORT 

ARTHUR HEROES . . . . . • SH 



MAPS AND PLANS 

KEY MAP OF JAPANESE SCENERY, IN COLOURS 
Specially illustrating chapters IV-VI 



ANNUAL RAINFALL .... 

THE RAILWAY SYSTEM . . . 

THE JAPANESE HIGHLANDS 

VOLCANIC ZONES, SHOWING ARRANGEMENT OF PRIN 
CIPAL VENTS . . . . 

PLAN OF THE ISLAND OF OSHIMA, IZU 

SECTIONS OF OSHIMA .... 

PLAN OF THE CRATER OF BANDAISAN . 

THE STRUCTURE OF ASOSAN (DIAGRAMMATIC) . 

KOREAN AND MANCHURIAN RAILWAYS . 

THE HOKKAIDO (yEZO) .... 

FORMOSA . . . " . 



Facing page 
Page 



32 

43 
103 

141 

157 
174 
185 

229 
244 
334 



12 



JAPAN'S INHERITANCE 

CHAPTER I 

_ . . « - 

THE CALL OF THE LAND 

The story of Japan — Mythology and science — A tale in three 
chapters — The old version preferred — A heritage of 
worth — Couleur de rose — Ignorance and prejudice — First 
impressions — The points of arrival — Where the East 
begins — Terrestrial stress and strain — Environment and 
character — What is truth ? 

The story of Japan varies with the teller. 
According to Japanese mythology, the Land of 
the Rising Sun was begotten by heavenly deities 
— Izanagi and Izanami— to be the abode of their 
favoured descendants. It was indeed the first- 
fruit of their mystic union . The rest of the world 
followed — incidentally, as it were, and as occasion 
arose. 

Should sceptic mortal call in question this 
celestial genesis, the Spear of Ninigi, grandson 
of the Sun-goddess Amaterasu, remains to this 
day transfixed in a cairn at the summit of the 

13 



Japan's Inheritance 

sacred Takachiho, in Southern Kyushu, to confute 
such unbelief. Amaterasu, of course, was the 
daughter of the twin deities mentioned above- 
born, to be precise, from the left eye of the 
Creator, Izanagi. By her Ninigi was commis- 
sioned to descend to terrestrial realms that he 
might secure the sovereignty for Jimmu, first 
human ruler of Japan. Where the child of the 
Sun -god touched Daughter Earth, there he left 
his Heavenly Spear. Than this relic, in the 
whole gamut of Japan's sacred things, there is 
but one more sacred. It is the Mirror of the 
Sun-goddess herself, secluded from mortal gaze 
in the holy of holies of the Daijingu Shrine 
at Ise. 

Science has a different tale to tell. Once upon 
a time, it says, Japan was no distinct division 
of land, but a part of the Asiatic continent. 
Instead of four thousand islands — five hundred 
of them with a diameter exceeding one mile — 
there were no islands at all. Then, from beneath 
the ocean, vast terrestrial forces came into play. 
The edge of the continent was reared upwards 
in great crumpled ridges, and the low land 
beyond sank beneath its ancient level. On either 
side of the depression thus created, the waters 
forced in their way. Thus were made, of the 
low lands, a narrow sea and, of the projecting 
arc, an island. With this great act of separa- 
tion, the first stage of Japan's story ends, 

14 




TIIK STKAR OF NINIGI. 
In a cairn at the stimiiiii of Takachilw. 




THE PEAK OF THE HEAVENLY SPEAR, FROM THE NORTH. 



Tj tace p. 14. 



The Call of the Land 

Things were not suffered to remain long thus. 
After a pause the attack was renewed, this time 
upon the island-arc. Its northern half, borne 
backwards and downwards, subsided beneath the 
sea. Midway, from shore to shore, the whole 
arc snapped, while the southern half broke up 
into three large and a number of small islands. 
Kyushu and Shikoku were two of the large 
islands ; Awaji (deemed by the mythologists a 
crystal fallen from' the Creator's jewelled spear) 
was one of the small. 

After long submergence Hondo reappeared 
above the waves. Its resurrection was the signal 
for an outburst of subterranean activity on a 
tremendous scale. At this time, no doubt, Kuji 
and many another of Japan's volcanoes began 
their troubled careers, and the newly risen area, 
in particular, was extensively overlaid with " the 
ashes of earth's fires." Meanwhile the agents of 
earth-sculpture got to work and, aided by subter- 
ranean force, made the face of the country what 
it is to-day. 

In the Nal-ku {" Inner Temple") of Ise, in 
Yamato, the Story of the Creation, according to 
Japanese lore, finds a local habitation and a 
name. Thither at set periods the nation turns 
in spirit, and as one man. Half a million 
pilgrims annually repair to worship in person, 
and those who cannot perform the journey receive 
from the Shinto authorities, on the last day of 

15 



Japan's Inheritance 



each year, a portion of the O-Nusa (" Great 
Offering "), to be reverently placed on their own 
tokonoma, altar of the household gods. School- 
boys have been known to play truant for weeks 
on end, and, by begging their way, to " tramp 
it " to the shrine of the Sun -goddess. Nor may 
stern parent or principal chide them on their 
return from so pious a performance. Heads of 
universities, lending to science too ready an ear, 
have been cashiered for venturing to pronounce 
this Story a myth. And public opinion is on the 
side of "the authorities." 

[What thinks the twentieth -century Japanese 
of the handiwork of his Imperial ancestors ? He 
finds it good. Its graces are more than a delight 
to mind and eye ; they have a value measurable 
in yen. Nor will this value fade with time. 
To all the beauty-seeking world the land makes 
irresistible appeal, and, with distance near 
annihilation, the insulce fortunatce of the East 
promise to become the playground of mankind. 
But let none suppose that days or months, that 
flying visit or officially conducted tour, will suffice 
to win their secrets. He who would know Japan 
must woo first-hand, and patiently. 

But hear a warning. The combination of 
novelty and old-world charm which distinguishes 
both the Japanese landscape and the ways of the 
people carries many an impressionable stranger 
off his feet. Rose-coloured spectacles become 

i6 



The Call of the Land 

his medium of vision ; the sense of proportion 
departs. Eor him, bemused, no ughness exists, 
or could exist, in " lotus land." On other folk, 
again, the opposite effect is produced. They 
have eyes only for Dai Nippon's sins. The 
characteristics of her scenery are defects ; her 
people " are compounded of conceit and deceit." 
But all these estimates are the limits of infatua- 
tion on the one hand, of ignorance or prejudice 
on the other. Via media holds the way of truth. 
Most people's first impressions of Japan seem 
to be connected in one way or another with 
Fujiyama. The number of drowsy passengers 
who have been dragged from' their bunks to 
behold the " silver bell " of that great volcano's 
summit, suspended as it were between heaven 
and earth, is legion ; and the language of our 
forefathers has suffered much at the hands of 
many who have attempted to describe the scene. 
As a matter of fact, the majority of visitors to 
the Land of the Rising Sun approach it from 
the south, via " the ports," as the saying goes 
in that part of the world. They thus set foot 
in Japan for the first time at Nagasaki or at 
Kobe. Even to the eye of faith Fuji is invisible 
from either of these places. Sometimes, how- 
ever, enthusiasm' plays strange tricks with 
geography. In more than one recent con- 
troversy as to " the finest view in the world," 
the palm has been given to " the image of Fuji 

17 B 



Japan's Inheritance 



in the beauteous waters of Lake Biwa." Of 
course, the lake in question is the one which, em- 
bosomed in the mountains of Hakone, takes from 
them its name. Legend has, indeed, connected 
the celebrated lake of Omi with the great volcano 
in another way ; but the distance between the 
two — 150 miles as the crow flies— effectually dis- 
qualifies Lake Biwa from serving as the " mirror 
of Fuji." As for those who approach Japan from 
America, they are more likely, long before Fuji 
comes in sight, to catch a glimpse of the fog- 
bound Hokkaido or of the half -sunken reef over 
whose jagged crests the huge Dakota rushed 
to its doom. 

We know that the mons excelsas et slngutarls 
of Japan, as Kaempfer called it, is visible from 
a great distance out at sea. Reliable witnesses 
have seen it from a hundred miles out, and it is 
even said to be discernible, in exceptionally clear 
weather, from the holy island of Kinkwazan, 
250 miles away to the north. During the 
summer months, however, the great volcano not 
infrequently obscures itself for days together 
behind a veil of clouds. At such times the 
stranger approaching the shores of Eastern 
Japan is more likely to have his attention 
directed to a sight as remarkable in its way 
— the ever-active volcano of Oshima (Vries 
Island), which lies in the fairway of the 
approach to Yedo Bay. I remember seeing this 



The Call of the Land 

island to great advantage from the deck of an 
Empress, when nearing Japan for the first time. 
The double-cratered summit of the mountain (for 
the island is the volcano, and the volcano the 
island), with billowy steam-clouds rolling from 
it, made, to my mind, a singularly impressive 
scene. I asked a fellow -passenger if it had ever 
been ascended. 'He was an " old timer," who 
had made the voyage from Shanghai to Yoko- 
hama " on business " a score of times, and what 
he did not know about the route was not worth 
knowing. " I did hear of one fellow," he said, 
" who was fool enough to climb up and look into 
the crater. . . . He was a German professor, 
or something of the sort," he added. " And what 
did he have to say about it?" I asked. "Oh, 
he was never heard of again ! " was the reply. 
My fortune has been, since then, to look into that 
crater on five separate occasions. 

Of the several points of approach to Eastern 
Japan, Nagasaki, with its verdant fiord-like 
harbour, is the most picturesque ; Kobe comes 
next, Yokohama last. The order of merit, in 
point of scenery, coincides with the order in 
which they are usually seen. On acquaintance, 
this is reversed. Nagasaki, so to speak, wears 
its heart on its sleeve ; it is soon known. Yoko- 
hama, as a world-port and gateway of the 
metropolis, gains immensely in interest and in 
" life." Moreover, the comparatively low country 

19 



Japan's Inheritance 



behind the harbour, which tends to give it a tame 
appearance, turns out to be pretty enough when 
explored. Kobe, on the other hand, if not so 
beautiful as the Kyushu port, occupies a situation 
of much dignity on a well -shaped bay at the 
base of wooded hills rising to 2,000 feet. Its 
nearness to " Old Japan " — the region consisting 
of the Go-kinai, or five " Home Provinces," with 
Kyoto for its centre — will, to many minds, give 
it a superior claim in point of interest. Still, 
there is no denying that Tokyo has become the 
social and political — as well as, to a large extent, 
the commercial — centre of gravity. From this 
movement northwards, Nagasaki, as being the 
remotest, has been the first to suffer ; and though 
the Inland Sea port has suffered also, the rise 
of Osaka as an industrial centre not only redeems 
Kobe from anything like inanition, but has given 
it the first place in the bulk, if not in the value, 
of Japan's oversea trade. 

Both Kobe and Yokohama were wont to rejoice 
in the possession of " foreign settlements." With 
the abolition of extra -territoriality, the term 
became an anachronism, and the Japanese took 
care that the quarters set apart in the old days 
for the foreign community were officially re- 
named. Except that dapper little Japanese 
policemen — saved from insignificance by their 
swords— have replaced the consular guards, the 
settlements remain very much as they were. On 

20 



The Call of the Land 

landing from an orthodox steam-launch at pier 
or bund, the stranger may enjoy the fascinating 
experience of his first " rick'sha " ride. It 
should, indeed, provide a medley of sensations. 
Not only will he be drawn by a little brown man 
with amazingly developed legs, attired in a cos- 
tume of the Middle Ages, with a hat fashioned 
after the similitude of an umbrella, but he will 
be drawn along a " foreign " roadway bounded 
by substantial, not to say imposing, buildings of 
brick and stone. Where are the wonderful fairy- 
like structures of wood and paper ? Fortunately, 
not far away. Just outside the borders of each 
of the former settlements is Motomachi (main 
street), where Japanese tradesmen, clad in the 
quaint kimono, do business on yellow tatami, with 
sliding paper -doors about them' ; and gaily 
dressed brown -skinned children, with geta on 
their feet and babies on their backs, play about 
the streets. Here, not on Bund or Bluff, the 
West ends and the East begins. 

The Japanese people may be little, but not so 
the land. The Britain of the East, even if one 
leaves out of the reckoning such of her outlying 
possessions as Chosen and Formosa, can allow 
Great Britain a margin in area of 25,000 square 
miles. Excluding the insular festoons of Liukiu 
and Chishima, Dai Nippon extends in length 
twelve hundred miles, as against Britain's six. 
The natural features are on a scale which 

21 



Japan's Inheritance 



reminds us that Japan is less an island chain than 
the edge of a great continent. More than that, 
the Japanese arc abuts upon an oceanic depres- 
sion as profound as any on the face of this planet. 
Between the salient points of the Central High- 
lands and the abysses of the Tuscarora— a 
difference in level of nearly 40,000 feet— lies a 
region of enormous terrestrial stress and strain. 
Thus it comes that the land of the lotus and 
the cherry blossom is also the home of the 
earthquake, the tidal flood, and the volcanic out- 
burst. As if to remind the easygoing people 
of their indebtedness, these same forces from 
time to time lay waste large areas of the land 
they have helped to build, exacting a heavy toll 
in life and property. 

Nations vary as the lands that bear them. For 
effects of environment upon the Japanese 
character we shall not look in vain. The natural 
charms which surround them have developed a 
sense of the beautiful which may justly be con- 
sidered national. They have furnished also 
inspiration and motive for innumerable works of 
art. The limited amount of soil available for 
cultivation and the unremitting care required in 
its preparation have made the inhabitants thrifty 
and industrious. The simple mode of living thus 
inculcated and a somewhat rough climate have 
helped to make them hardy and capable of great 
endurance. For mountains of any description, 

22 



The Call of the Land 

and for volcanic mountains in particular — as 
being (so to speak) the most demonstrative — the 
Japanese people show an extraordinary regard. 
This Veneration has a religious origin and ten- 
dency, because many of the natural phenomena, 
especially those of a terrifying or destructive 
character, have always been regarded as mani- 
festations of the divine will. Without going so 
far as the lady-writer who asserted that the 
" excitability " of the Japanese — a characteristic 
not usually attributed to them] — arose from the 
volcanic nature of the country, it may be said 
that the earthquake and the flood have made 
fatalists of the Japanese. They set great store 
by a happy life, but they do not forget that it 
may be brief. Adjoining the comparatively 
flimsy abode of all Japanese of substance may 
be seen a ponderous and imposing structure, sug- 
gestive of a gigantic safe, which is supposed to 
be proof against earthquake, fire, and flood. In 
this fortress they keep their valuables ; in the 
doll's house they keep themselves. 

To enable us to strike a balance between the 
very diverse opinions regarding the Japanese 
people and their country which have been 
given to the world, we must take into account 
the actual — and, in a sense, unique — conditions 
under which the Japanese have grown to nation- 
hood. We must have a clear idea of their 
physical as well as their social and political 

23 



Japan's Inheritance 



environment. We must make generous allow- 
ance for the effects of the unprecedented changes 
which have taken place within the last fifty years, 
remembering that, in this brief period, a nation 
with the unbroken history of more than two 
millenniums behind it has turned from one 
civilization to another. Only by fully and 
faithfully examining these real foundations of 
Japanese life shall we be in a position to appre- 
ciate the remarkable position which the Island 
People of the East have gained in the modern 
world. Then, havin,g thus learned of the Past, 
we may ask of the future what it holds in store 
for them. 



24 



CHAPTER II 
TIMES AND SEASONS 

Japan not a hot country — Vagaries of climate — The West 
and North — The Kuroshiwo — The " winter's wind " and 
the Japanese house — Skating an imported art — Rainfall 
and flood — Unconforming seasons — Climate and health 
— The seasons in colour — Autumnal tints — When to see 
Japan. 

A WIDESPREAD impression persists in the West 
that Japan is a hot country. The fact is over- 
looked that the Empire extends over a distance 
of 2,000 miles through thirty degrees of latitude, 
and presents in consequence an immense variety 
of climatic conditions. Even if we consider 
only the four large islands which constitute Japan 
proper, very great differences remain. Let us 
in the first instance confine our attention to the 
central or salient part of the main Japanese arc, 
abutting on the Pacific — in other words, the 
eastern slope of the country for roughly 
200 miles north and south of Tokyo Bay. 

Taking this region — a mean between the extremes 

25 



Japan's Inheritance 



— as representative of the whole, the first con- 
clusion at which we shall arrive is that the 
Japanese climate, so far from being one of 
tropical warmth, is colder than its latitude would 
lead us to expect. On this basis of latitude, 
Tokyo should enjoy as genial weather as Naples 
or Seville. But does it? Kor two months of 
the year it is uncomfortably hot — the discomfort 
proceeding rather from the dampness of the 
atmosphere than the height of the temperature ; 
and, for the rest, in all the essentials of a good 
climate it is a long way behind Andalusia or 
the south of Italy. 

Were it not for a rainfall exceeding 120 inches 
per annum, one part of Japan — to wit, southern 
Kyushu — could claim a climate of Italian 
amenity. Sugar-cane is grown, and left stand- 
ing all the year round, on the southward slopes 
of Sakurajima — the only place, I believe, in 
Japan. I That most malodorous radish, the 
dalkon, here grows as big as a man. Rain 
ruins the sumnier of Japan's " farthest south," 
but the winter is as nearly as possible perfec- 
tion. Snow is the rarest of visitations. Nor, 
for the matter of that, is it common in the Tokyo 
district — there are on the average three or four 
falls of an inch or so during the season ; but 

^ In other parts of the country the small and hardy Chinese 
variety {Saccharum sinense) is planted yearly in the spring 
and harvested in autumn. 

26 



Times and Seasons 

it seems to make a point of coming at untoward 
times. One of the heaviest falls of recent years 
was in mid-April, 1908, when the Japanese 
world-and-his-wife went to bed dreaming of the 
morrow's promenade under the cherry-blossoms, 
but woke to find roseate loveliness smothered 
beneath several inches of snow. To such con- 
ditions — it is perhaps superfluous to remark — 
the Japanese foot-gear does not lend itself. 
More to be feared are they than floods, for these 
are more in the nature of things, and when they 
do descend upon the land one can at least fall 
back upon jlnrikisha or sampan. 

In Eastern Japan, then, the seasons have their 
vagaries. What of the rest? Cross the dividing 
backbone range to the Western coast, at any 
time after mid-November, and you will find a 
climate like that of Eastern Canada — a country- 
side under 4 or 5 feet of snow. Streets lie 
buried up to the eaves of the houses, and on 
either side notice-boards project above the 
temporarily elevated way — " You will find the 
post-ofli'ce below," " The police-station lies 
buried beneath this spot," and so on. Of 
course, the farther north the more pronounced 
these wintry rigours. If the climate of southern 
Kyushu may be called sub -tropical, that of Yezo 
approaches the Arctic. For five months of the 
year the 'Hokkaido lies under snow and ice. 

And yet, taken all round, its climate is the driest, 

27 



Japan's Inheritance 



with a summer delightful, if all too brief. Add 
to this medley of meteorological conditions the 
fact that few parts of Japan escape being 
drenched by floods or swept by a typhoon once 
a year at least, and it will appear that the ways 
of the weather, over the Empire as a whole, 
can boast little moderation or regularity. 

So far we have treated of effects without 
reference to causes. These, however, will throw 
some light upon the mysteries of the Japanese 
climate. To take the first of these, Japan 
has its Gulf Stream — the Kuroshiwo ("Black 
Current ") — which with a temperature of 80° E. 
brings warmth and moisture to the southern and 
south-eastern shores. To this " Black Current," 
as it is called from the purplish hue of its 
waters, Japan owes those summer rains which, 
however disconcerting to the tourist, are valuable 
to the country — the secret of its wonderful, all- 
pervading verdure. The same genial influence 
redeems the Japanese winter, inclement though 
it is, from the severity of that of the adjacent 
continent. The southward slopes of Kyushu and 
Shikoku especially profit from the nearness of 
the Kuroshiwo. Two rice crops annually are 
here a certainty. In the higher regions there 
is " a vigorous growth of deciduous trees, where 
horse-chestnuts and magnolias intermingle with 
beech, ash, oak, and alder trees. Evergreens 
venture much higher than in Hondo, and, in 

28 





CHERRY-TREES IN BLOOM, UYENO PARK, TOKYO. 




CHERRY BLOSSOMS UNDER SNOW, YOKOHAMA PARK. 



To face p. 28. 



Times and Seasons 

lower levels, camphor -trees and other cinnamon 
species take part in the composition of the ever- 
green forests." At 39° N ., however, in the 
vicinity of Kinkwazan, the Kuroshiwo turns 
sharply to the east, and, skirting the abysses 
of the Tuscarora, strikes across the ocean for 
the British Columbian coast. A tributary of this 
stream enters the Tsushima Straits and warms 
the south-western coast of Hondo, but makes 
little headway beyond the Oki Archipelago. 
Down from the north, on the other hand, comes 
a cold current which enwraps Yezo in its icy 
embrace, passing out into the Pacific through 
the deep Tsugaru Straits. 

The next great factor in the making of 
the Japanese climate is the nearness of the 
Siberian land massif. No part of Japan from 
November to April escapes the keen northerly 
wind, which makes the Japanese winter seem 
even colder than it is. It is the same wind that 
compels foreign residents of North China, from 
Tientsin to Chefoo, to fit double windows to their 
houses and stuff the interstices with cotton -wool 
" to expel the winter's flaw." So far as Japan 
is concerned, the passage of this icy blast over 
the slightly warmer Sea of Japan adds to its 
moisture and robs it of some of its keenness. 
Nevertheless, after draping the western slope of 
the watershed with snow, it sweeps from the 
drifts of the dividing ridge upon the hills and 

29 



Japan's Inheritance 



plains of Eastern Japan. What resistance to 
its onset can the wood-and-paper houses of the 
Japanese afford ? The inmates can but tuck their 
feet more tightly beneath them and crouch more 
closely over their poisonous hibachi. Few bother 
to concern themselves with the Home Depart- 
ment's mortality returns, which show that the 
death-rate from tuberculosis and other chest 
complaints stands higher in Japan than in any 
other civilized country. 

Nine out of every ten Japanese, confronted 
with these facts, would with an almost Gallic 
shrug of the shoulders reply Shikata-ga-nai (It 
cannot be helped). An ordinary artisan's dwell- 
ing can be put together for £ 1 5, whereas a 
structure of clapboard with lath and plaster 
" walls " within — the style of most of the 
" foreign " houses — designed to keep out some 
at least of the cold, would cost many times that 
sum. And how many clerks or working men, 
earning perhaps 25 yen a month, could afford to 
pay the necessary rent? People have wondered 
at the cheerful regularity with which Japanese 
families adjourn nightly to the nearest public 
bath-house. The raw chilliness of the Japanese 
winter supplies, in part, the answer : they can 
there be warm for at least one hour out of the 
twenty-four. 

But if the Japanese winter is cold, it has its 
compensations in the warmth of sunshine and 

30 



Times and Seasons 

comparative absence of rain. The north wind 
nightly coats the " paddies " with a film of ice, 
which the noonday sun destroys. This much at 
least East-Central Japan owes to her latitude of 
36° N. For the same reason skating can seldom 
be enjoyed in the Tokyo district. As a pastime 
it was unknown in Japan prior to 1878. In that 
exceptionally severe winter, when even in mid- 
Kyushu snow lay four feet deep, some foreign 
residents astonished the natives by their gyrations 
on the ice. Skating enthusiasts, Japanese and 
foreign, now repair to the highlands, and a yearly 
championship contest is held on Lake Suwa, in 
Central Japan, 2,600 feet above sea-level. Out- 
side of the mountain districts day-frosts are rare. 
Beyond what might be considered the limit of 
the temperate climate, the Sendai-Niigata line, 
there is, of course, another tale to tell . 

Of the whole year the four or five months 
from mid-October to early March are the driest. 
Less than a fifth of the total rainfall occurs 
during this period, which offers the most agree- 
able general conditions. The second "rainy 
season " — that of the autumnal equinox — is over, 
and till the disagreeable conditions of early 
spring set in nothing mars the succession of 
bright, if chilly, days and clear, frosty nights. 
Any one visiting Japan in January would stare in- 
credulously at meteorological tables which affirm 
the rainfall in the Tokyo -Yokohama district to 

31 



Japan's Inheritance 



Hakodate 



Annual kainfall 

/7 uncley JfO intles SO lb ICO tn. 
^ (^0 ^0 ^6 in, 

k 



Nagano 
Noto Penin- 
sula 




Sendai 



Tokyo 



Kii Penin- 
sula 



Kagoshima 



be 6o to 70 inches annually — more than double 
the English average. Had he arrived in June 
or September, he would be tempted to condemn 

32 



Times and Seasons 

the statement as below the mark. Between the 
dimate of Britain and its Oriental namesake 
there is, in respect of rainfall, this broad dis- 
tinction. In the one case it more often drizzles 
than rains ; in the other, when it rains, it rains . 
England's annual figure is less than half Japan's, 
but her " rainy days " outnumber Japan's by 
nearly 20 per cent. Scotch mists give place in 
Japan to rainstorms, which for persistence and 
resultant mischief would be hard to beat. In 
September, 1878 — an annus mirabilis for weather 
— nearly 7 inches of rain fell at Yokohama in 
the space of thirty hours, and 20 inches in the 
course of the month. Though this record has 
not since been surpassed, it has on several occa- 
sions been approached. More recently, how- 
ever, the wet blanket of September seems to have 
descended upon August. In 19 10, thousands of 
holiday-makers in the mountain districts were 
cut off from communication with the outside 
world. Road, rail, and telegraph succumbed to 
the attack of the elements. Houses were flooded, 
riverside inns swept away, and in several of the 
more crowded resorts a shortage of food sup- 
plies caused the conditions to approximate to 
those of a siege. Nor did the cities of the plain 
escape. Floods invaded the low-lying wards of 
Tokyo to a depth of several feet, and for the 
space of two days and a night some thousands 
of the inhabitants lived literally on the roofs 

33 c 



Japan's Inheritance 



of their houses, while rehef parties in sampans 
passed to and fro, throwing rice-balls and bottles 
of fresh water up to the victims of the swollen 
Sumidagawa. 

The extremes of the Japanese year are known 
as the doyo (dog-days) and dai-kan (great cold). 
The former is scheduled by the meteorological 
authorities to follow immediately on the nyabai, 
or rainy season proper, which in its turn has 
the period June i o to July 7 assigned to it in 
the calendar. An elusive and disconcerting thing 
is this rainy season. Sometimes a misty cool- 
ness, sometimes a hothouse mugginess pervades 
the land. There is frequent, but rarely torren- 
tial, rain. In a normal year this is followed by 
several weeks of fine hot weather — the time 
of all times for travel in the interior. In the 
coast districts the thermometer goes up to 85° 
or 90° Ki. in the shade ; Europeans who are 
compelled to stay at home don their " ducks," 
mosquitoes begin to get troublesome, and the 
screech of the cicada is heard in the land. All 
who can get away join the general exodus to 
the hills — the corps dlptomatique and the mis- 
sionary fraternity leading the way. There, at 
any rate, all goes merrily as a wedding-bell — 
in a normal year . Unfortunately, the normal and 
the abnormal have a trick of changing places — 
unaccountably and at short notice. The nytibai 
fails to " come off," things go wrong with the 

34 




A SUMMER SCENE, CENTRAL JAPAN. 




A DIAGNOSIS — BY A DOCTOR OF THE OLD SCHOOL. 



To face p. 34. 



Times and Seasons 

dog-days, troubles descend by way of the river- 
beds upon highlands and lowlands alike, and 
the discomfited clerks of the weather in the 
Tokyo Observatory would fain confess themselves 
no better than the rustics who say it will be fine 
when the tombi (kite) cries of an evening, and 
wet when a Crow washes his plumes in running 
water. 

In drawing attention to its eccentricities, 
I have given, I fear, a somewhat unfavourable, 
almost alarming, account of the Japanese climate. 
Nevertheless, let none condemn it as unhealthy 
or severe. Even in the most unsettled seasons 
there is no month which has not its beautiful 
days, and there is no month in which the con- 
ditions put an excessive strain upon a healthy 
European constitution. Medical men declare it 
to be specially good for children, but not, on 
the whole, for ladies, whom it is said to affect 
with " nerves." As a similar complaint has been 
made of the Far East in general, the blame 
should be laid elsewhere than at the door of 
the climate. 

Like most other countries, Japan looks her 
best when she begins to don her summer green, 
and, thanks to the ubiquity of the maple, she 
probably excels all others in the glorious wealth 
of her autumnal tints. The year goes out as it 
comes in, in a blaze of colour. Nor, between 
whiles, is there dearth of it. The plum and the 

35 



Japan's Inheritance 

cherry lead, azaleas follow to fire the woods, 
wistaria to drape the dells and tea-houses. The 
purple iris takes up the tale, and late in summer 
the lotus, with a fine impartiality, spreads its 
gorgeous blooms over landscape garden and 
village mud-pond. 

" Sere and yellow " is no term to use of the 
fall of the year in Japan. As autumn advances 
red and white camellias give wonderful effects 
to the hill-sides — for all that they are, in Japanese 
eyes, unlucky, and untidy in the spreading of 
their faded petals. November's is the double 
glory of the chrysanthemum and the maple — the 
one in the trim garden, the other on the wild 
mountain flank. It is the last flash of summer. 
As the maple fades from scarlet to russet -brown 
the peaks of the interior receive their cap of 
snow. And not till June are the high passes 
of the West and North clear of their winter's 
load. 

Wherefore the man who feels that he cannot 
really see Japan save at the time of the cherry- 
blossom will, of course, arrive early in April ; 
but he must be prepared for unsettled, not to 
say inclement, weather. The man who comes 
to climb (and, with all respect to the cherry- 
blossom, no one can really see Japan without 
climbing) ; to fish in some of the mountain 
streams of the interior or in the ground lakes of 
Inawashiro, Towada, and Shikotsu ; or to shoot— 

36 



Times and Seasons 

be it bears or ptarmigan— in the forests of the 
Alps or of Yezo, will make his arrival coincide 
with the end of the nyubai— assuming that that 
somewhat erratic season comes when it ought to 
come. The man who wants to see as much of 
the interior as possible with the exception of 
the two last-mentioned districts — and to see it 
under the most favourable conditions — will arrive 
in the latter part of October. He may then 
accomplish, if he will, some of the finest tours 
Japan— or, for the matter of that, any country 
—can show in ideal touring weather, through 
forests and wooded valleys showing unequalled 
glories of autumnal foliage. For the beaten 
tracks, with their curio -shops, temples, and works 
of art, one season is very much the same as 
another — barring the doyo, when, in the low- 
lands, temperature and atmosphere alike are 
oppressive. If the visitor is wise, he will not 
come in March — which, as a rule, is like the 
worst English March, with much cold wind and 
rain ; nor in May, which excessive precipita- 
tion often renders the reverse of merry ; nor 
in September, which is par excellence the month 
of floods. These times and seasons should he 
avoid, and, that disappointment be not his, the 
others choose. 



37 



CHAPTER III 

WAYS AND MEANS 

Deterrents — The food question — The Japanese bed — Railway 
communication — Natural obstacles — Other modes of 
travel — The basha — The jinrikisha and its invention 
— Life at a Japanese inn — A railway journey in hot 
weather — Suwa-ko — The Nakasendo — The Japanese 
pack-saddle — Karuizawa and Kusatsu : a contrast in 
summer resorts — A grand pass — The Western Sea — 
Accidents will happen ! 

T,\v;o things deter the average foreigner in Japan 
from travel in the interior — Japanese food and 
the Japanese bed. In pre-revision days might 
have been added a third — doubt as to the 
character of one's reception by the inhabitants. 
As all will testify who have gone far afield, this 
no longer obtains. Then, of course, there is 
the obstacle, more imaginary than real, of the 
language. Curiously enough, the majority of 
residents, well able to make themselves under - 
standed of the densest rustic, rest content with 
the stock places, where other residents fore- 
gather. Even the stranger within Japan's gates, 

38 



Ways and Means 

whose vocabulary on arrival is nil, can get oVer 
the difficulty by engaging a guide. Nevertheless 
he too seems to be satisfied with the most beaten 
of beaten tracks and (as often as not) proceeds 
to describe in print, with equal enthusiasm and 
superficiality, the very scenes which scores of 
travellers before him' have described in precisely 
the same way. 

It is a great grievance to the foreign traveller 
that bread, or pan as it is called locally, can 
seldom be had in the interior. The Occidental 
avoirdupois seems not to prosper on the native 
diet of fish, rice, and eggs, and innumerable 
changes rung thereon. Nevertheless the food 
problem is not altogether insuperable. He that 
has no stomach for Japanese " culinary conun- 
drums " may escape therefrom by organizing a 
commissariat of his own. The carrying capacity 
of the rural ninsoku is, to the Epicurean, truly 
tempting. Many a stalwart brown-skinned wight 
clad but in straw-sandals and fandoshi has 
bowed beneath the double burden of what his 
globe-trotting employer shall eat and what he 
shall put on. In the vicinity of treaty ports, 
however, and places where they trade, the coolie 
becomes corrupted. As the price of his labour 
rises, his powers as a beast of burden wane. 
One bearer seems to be needed for the provender, 
another for the raiment, a third, perhaps, for the 
photographic outfit. Then there is, of course, 

39 



Japan's Inheritance 

the real master of the expedition— the licensed 
guide — and a coolie for the goods and chattels of 
the guide. Thus a journey into the interior 
begins to resemble the march of a small -army. 
If the traveller's purpose is not only to receive 
impressions but to make them, a certain measure 
of gratification should at least be his. 

Still, the thing is possible. No traveller with 
a well-filled purse need of necessity plumb to 
its depths the " unsatisfying unreality " of 
Japanese fare. But from the Japanese bed there 
is no escape. No doubt the ingenuity of the 
annal with a free hand could tackle the problem 
of transporting a " foreign " bedstead, with its 
bulky appurtenances, over some parts of the 
interior. But no self-respecting proprietor of 
a decent inn would permit the infernal machine 
to be set up in any of his rooms, to the ruin of 
his best tatami. The traveller who is not dist- 
posed to boggle at trifles in the quest of comfort 
could, of course, camp out, bed and all, on the 
bonny banks of the lotus pond in the yadoya's 
landscape garden ; but of a certainty the police 
would not permit it. They have instructions to 
keep a parental eye on all foreigners wandering 
in the wilderness of the interior — and no one 
has lived long in Japan without making the 
acquaintance, more or less indirectly, of the 
Japanese doroho (robber). There are parts of 
the country — outlying islands such as Yakushima 

40 



Ways and Means 

— where the inhabitants live in a state of idyllic 
security and where thieves do not break through 
and steal ; but this does not apply to the Empire 
as a whole. 

Anthropologists assure us that the Japanese 
are blessed with less prominent hip-bones and 
a less arched spine than the unfortunate white 
man. On this account they can sleep, curled 
up or prone, upon a flat, unyielding surface, 
without experiencing unpleasant consequences. 
Not so the foreigner. He quickly ascertains the 
weak point of the Japanese bed to be that it has 
no " give." The discovery is made at dead of 
night, some hours after a fair nesan, gravely 
regarding him as a huge but helpless child, has 
put him solicitously to bed. A sense of stiffness 
oppresses him. Half asleep, he essays to turn — 
and snaps his spinal column. The accompany- 
ing sensations, at any rate, are sufficient to justify 
such belief. After a bad quarter of an hour 
sleep comes again to the sufferer's relief, but 
the process is certain to be repeated twice or 
thrice before the appalling clatter of the amado 
(wooden shutters running in grooves), flung open 
at the peep of day, renders further rest impos- 
sible. 

The remedy — at best a partial one— is to pile 
on the futon. These are the thick, wadded quilts, 
measuring 6 feet by 3 feet, which compose the 
"bed." Beneath them extend the tat ami, from 

41 



Japan's Inheritance 

I to 2 inches thick — soft, in a measure, but spread 
on inflexible boards. The regulation number of 
quilts, I believe, is two ; but in my travels I 
have always made a point of insisting upon four — 
even at the risk of a longitudinal increase in 
the formidable strip of tissue paper, beset with 
hieroglyphics in Indian ink, which is presented 
next morning by way of a bill. The device 
mitigates, if it does not remove, the evil of the 
" crick," and has the advantage of beguiling the 
household with yet another proof of Occidental 
eccentricity. Once, indeed, I came across a 
foreigner — he had a Japanese wife— who con- 
fessed that he himself preferred a Japanese bed. 
'He would not, he said, woo sleep on one of 
Maple's creations even if he had the chance — 
it was good for the liver and a sovereign safe-i 
guard against laziness. But he must have been 
an exceptional man, endowed by some trick of 
evolution with a Japanese spine. 

Access can be had to most parts of the interior 
by means of the Japanese railway system. Five 
thousand miles of track represents, all things 
considered, a fair development for one genera- 
tion. The principal line in the Empire connects 
the metropolitan (Tokyo -Yokohama) with the 
chief industrial (Osaka-Kobe) district, following 
roughly the course of the Tokaido, or Eastern 
Highway, which only leaves the coast to circum- 
vent the bases of the rugged Izu and Kii penin- 



Sapporo 



Akita 



Niigata 



Tsuruga 



Moji 



THE HAILWAY SYSTEM 
Mft.iti Lines *\^^ BvAncTi LiTies"\^ 




Muroran 



Sendai 



«Sai^ 



Tokyo 



Osaka 



Kagoshima 



Japan's Inheritance 



sulas. This Tokaido railway has been extended 
north and south to the extremities of the Main 
Island at Aomori and Shimonoseki respectively, 
making a trunk line of close on 1,200 miles^ 
which has been double -tracked over the 
380 miles between the metropolis and the Inland 
Sea port of Kobe (Hyogo). 

From this main line transverse routes have 
been opened through the interior to the Japan 
Sea. Four cross-country lines lead to the port 
of Akita, Niigata, Toyama, and Maizuru, on the 
western coast. The first of these, continued 
northward to Aomori, makes with the Northern 
Railway a loop by which both the Pacific and 
the Japan Sea slopes of northern Hondo are 
fed. The second follows for a large part of its 
course the Nakasendo or Mid-mountain High- 
way, and, turning north to avoid the formidable 
barrier of the meridional Hida range, strikes the 
Western Sea at Naoetsu. Thence, by way of the 
coast and the lower Shinano Valley, the line runs 
north-east to Niigata. The third, following the 
Lake Biwa depression, where Hondo is at its. 
narrowest, opens up communication with the west 
coast centres of Fukui and Kanazawa. Where it 
reaches the sea, Tsuruga has lately come into 
prominence as the port making connection with 
the Trans-Siberian Railway at VladiVostock . The 
passage in the Russian Volunteer steamers occu- 
pies thirty hours, as compared with the ten-hour 

44 



Ways and Means 



trip from Shimonoseki to Fusan, the terminus 
of the Korean branch of the system. By running 
excellent trains and steamers on this " all- 
Japanese " route — the last section of which is 
represented by the newly opened Antung- 
Mukden line across eastern Manchuria — the 
Tokyo authorities hope to bring London within 
twelve days of Tokyo, and thus secure for them- 
selves the bulk of the trans -continental traffic 
with Europe, Along the 700-mile run from Shim- 
bashi (Tokyo) to the straits of Shimonoseki, a 
service of express trains, averaging 30 miles an 
hour and supplied with dining and sleeping cars, 
is regularly maintained. On the cross-country 
lines, time is no object. Delays are frequent, 
and an average speed of 15 miles is seldom 
exceeded. For refreshment the traveller must 
needs content himself with the native bento — a 
luncheon-box sold for 5d., and containing rice, 
various mysterious products of the Japanese 
kitchen, and a pair of brand-new chop-sticks 
complete. Despite the lowness of the railway 
tariff — first-class rates corresponding approxi- 
mately with third-class in other countries — the 
railway system, which since 1906 has been a 
State monopoly, yields a substantial yearly 
revenue . 

Where the transverse lines encountered the 
mountain ranges of the interior, wide detours, 
with a view to the selection of low passes, became 

45 



Japan's Inheritance 

necessary, adding considerably to the mileage. 
These measures, though they mitigated, did not 
do away with the necessity for extensive tunnel- 
ling. North of the Bandai-Azuma mountain 
mass, the Fukushima-Akita line surmounts the 
backbone ridge by means of nineteen tunnels — 
the highest, at a height of 2,500 feet above 
sea -level, with a length of more than a mile. 
Forty-one tunnels, one of them 3 miles long, were 
required for the Sasago-toge, on the Kofu line ; 
twenty-six for the steep Usui-toge, with its 
gradient of i in i 5 ; and a like number for the 
newest of the routes, that opening up communica- 
tion between southern and central Kyushu. Only 
in the case of the Osaka-Tsuruga line, which 
follows the great depression of Omi — the line 
of a future ship -canal connecting the Pacific with 
the Western Sea — were these costly embarrass- 
ments avoided. In this district a difficulty of 
another kind presented itself. Most of the 
Japanese rivers, on reaching the plains, tend to 
raise their beds by excessive deposition of 
detritus ; so several streams were here passed by 
means of tunnels instead of viaducts. Labour 
being cheap and the materials imported for 
bridge -building dear, the railway was taken 
under, instead of over, the rivers. 

Much of Japan's finest scenery and many of 
the most popular resorts are not directly acces- 
sible by rail. The traveller who wishes to see 

46 



Ways and Means 

the real Japan must have recourse, on occasion, 
to the " stage coach " or basha, the man-drawn 
jlnrikisha, or the pack-saddle. Innocent of 
springs, and drawn by a miserable superannuated 
dwarf of a horse, while six unhappy humans 
struggle for space on its hard, uncushioned floor 
— such is the native and unadorned basha. In 
some more enterprising regions the type has been 
improved upon. A roof has been added, which 
draws the veil over the sufferings of the inmates. 
Springs of a sort deaden to some extent the 
succession of jolts and jars, by comparison with 
which the " Wiggle -wo ggle " of the White City 
is a mild and playful affair. Narrow boards have 
been introduced longitudinally, at a height of 
a foot or so above the floor, to serve as seats, 
and, despite the fact that one's knees come into 
frequent and violent contact with those of the 
passenger opposite, this innovation from the West 
is a step in the right direction. As for the rate 
of travel of the basha, that averages, under 
favourable conditions, five miles an hour, and the 
stoppages for rest and refreshment — on the part 
of steed and driver — are frequent and prolonged. 
Sometimes, as on descending from an arduous 
mountain climb at a considerable distance from 
one's objective, and in the absence of the jln- 
rikisha, the basha offers that species of relief 
which is derived from change of exercise ; but, 
as a general rule, it may be questioned whether 

47 



Japan's Inheritance 



the loss of energy involved in the struggle for 
existence in the confined interior of the chariot 
is not greater than that which might be expended 
in covering the distance on foot. 

The subject of the jinrikisha — and more 
especially of its invention — raises a new issue 
between East and West. An American mis- 
sionary of the name of Goble is said to have 
signalized the opening of the Era of Enlighten- 
ment (called by the Japanese Meiji) by the 
creation of the first man -drawn vehicle. The 
invention is the kind that does more credit to the 
head than to the heart. One is reminded of 
the propagator of Christianity — said to have 
hailed from Chicago — who conceived the idea 
of inculcating the principles of commercial 
morality among the Japanese by running a few 
stores of his own, sub rosd, in various localities — • 
and thereby succeeded in solving the problem of 
serving at the same time God and Mammon. 
However, this distinction of having invented 
the jinrikisha is disputed by the Japanese, who 
claim that the first man-drawn vehicle was 
made and used in 1868 by a Kyoto cripple, 
who found the kago (chair) too uncomfortable 
a means of conveyance. 

Many Japanese themselves object to the jin- 
rikisha altogether, as inflicting on the Oriental 
the stigma of inferiority. No white man, they 

point out, has ever drawn a yellow through the 

48 





IN A HOKKAIDO POKT : SAMPAN GOING 
OUT TO STEAMER. 

The peak in the distance is the ancient volcano 
of Usu. 



CRYPTOMERIA AVENUE, NEAR NIKKO. 

Said to have been -planted by a devotee too poor 
to offer money at the ShogJin's shrine. 





BASHA OUTSIDE INN, HOKKAIDO. 

The landlord is in tlie right foreground. 



TRAVEL BY PACK-HORSE. 

Mother and son on holiday jaitnt. 



To face p. 4^. 



Ways and Means 



public streets. Nevertheless, the profession of 
the kuramaya — to use the Japanese term— will 
persist. A good rikisha-mzxi makes a profit of 
15 to 20 yen a month — too lucrative a trade to 
be abandoned for the sake of sentiment. The 
introduction of electric trams dealt the rlkisha- 
man a blow, but not so severe that it could not 
be parried by a moderate rise in the tariff. Out- 
side of the large centres the jinrikisha holds its 
own. If anything ever kills the man -drawn 
vehicle it will be the extensive development of 
motor traffic. But this is a long way off. 
Phthisis remains the chief enemy of the man 
between the shafts. Over-exertion and subse- 
quent exposure to cold — on a diet quite unequal 
to the drain upon the system — have made the 
death-rate from consumption and other wasting 
diseases higher among ]inrikiska-xn.^n than in 
any other class. 

The Japanese yadoya (native inn) has received 
its share of abuse at the hands of globe-trotters, 
but people familiar with the ways of the country 
prefer it to the " semi-foreign " establishment 
provided in resorts favoured by European 
visitors, where " English" (as she is Japped) is 
spoken, where foreign food, chairs, and beds (of 
sorts) are provided, and where (to the delectation 
and profit of the guides) the curio-shops abound. 
There is no better way of gaining an acquaintance 
with the customs and life of the people than by 

49 D 



Japan's Inheritance 

spending a few days in a well-conducted native 
hotel. The inconvenience arising from the 
absence of tables and chairs will be found to be 
more imaginary than real. The soft straw mat- 
ting, I to 2 inches thick, which covers the floors 
of every Japanese house, makes a pleasant 
surface on which to live and move and have one's 
being. Square wadded cushions serve as seats, 
and thick, soft quilts as beds. Of the four walls 
of a room, while three consist of sliding paper 
screens, one as a rule has some pretensions to 
solidity. It contains the decorated recess, or 
tokonoma, from the character of whose fine- 
grained wood, kakemono (hanging screens) or 
lacquer-work, the standing of the household can 
at once be gauged. In one of its corners rests 
a little red or black lacquer stand, perhaps 
2 feet square by i foot high, which answers in 
itself the dual purposes of dining -table and 
writing-desk. With this in front of him, a 
zabuton for a seat, and his back against the 
wooden upright which divides the tokonoma from 
the blank half of the one real wall of his apart- 
ment — what more can, the traveller want ? It may 
suggest a picnic, but such is life, in Japan ! The 
queer little snacks put before him by way of 
food (of course he will not have forgotten to 
bring some "foreign" viands with him); the 
dainty nesan (waitress) in her best obi (girdle) 
kneeling before him — grave without, but hope- 

50 



Ways and Means 

lessly gay within ; the comedy of the bath, par- 
ticipated in, perhaps, by half a score of highly 
respectable persons besides himself, or even, in 
hot-spring districts, al fresco — all these will give 
the same impression. The little people of Dai 
Nippon are wise in their generation. They 
turn the lighter and brighter side of life 
towards them, and resolutely refuse to look on 
any other. 

A journey across Central Japan from the 
Pacific to the Japan Sea — taken in easy stages 
and without too rigid adherence to the iron road 
— would offer excellent opportunities for seeing 
the country and sampling the various modes of 
travel. The actual distance scarcely exceeds that 
from London to Plymouth. Let no one suppose, 
however, that it is a matter of four hours in a 
corridor train. Among the Japanese, at any rate, 
the individual who travelled without a break from 
one side of the country to the other would be 
regarded with equal admiration and curiosity, 
not unmingled, perhaps, with speculation as to 
the state of his mind. Even Europeans are 
wont to consider the half-way station of 
Karuizawa, six or seven hours from the capital, 
a fair day's journey. The weather, too, is at 
least as important a consideration in Japan as in 
other lands. On the occasion of my doing this 
trip, in the company of a young Englishman who 
had recently arrived in the country, the year had 

51 



Japan's Inheritance 

been abnormal. Without having been preceded 
by the nyuhal (rainy season), the doyo (dog 
days) were upon us — and this meant trouble later 
on. Nevertheless, by all who could contrive the 
change, the former treaty ports, sweltering in 
the damp heat which makes the Japanese 
summer seem so much hotter than it is, were 
being forsaken for the hill districts of the 
interior. Thus, in our search for coolness, we 
found ourselves, one cloudless morning, in a 
crowded train, with the thermometer at 90° 
in the shade. 

Being mere males, and thrifty, the second- 
class seemed to meet our case. Lady mis- 
sionaries have been known — with eyes that see 
not — to travel "third," but to such heights of self- 
sacrifice we did not feel called upon to rise. No 
" foreign " ladies were among the thirty-odd 
passengers who, with their varied impedimenta, 
babies included, filled the long compartment to 
overflowing. Perhaps it was as well. Three 
Japanese gentlemen at one end of the car, in 
anticipation of a hot journey, proceeded with 
much sangfroid to exchange their European gar- 
ments for the cooler and more ample kimotvo. 
None of those present regarded the operation 
as anything but normal, and our three gentlemen, 
having discarded their boots for soft white tabiy 
squatted on their heels on the cushioned seats 
and proceeded to discuss a bottle of sake. In 

52 



Ways and Means 

this they were aided by the consumption of 
numerous swift-burning cigarettes of a popular 
brand, from which, despite their modest price of 
ten for one penny, the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau 
makes an annual profit of several millions of 
yen. Voices soon became loud, faces a dull red, 
and the conversation animated to an alarming 
degree, when the arrival of the train at the 
tunnels setved to create a welcome diversion. 

The Kuwanto plain, alluvial for the most part 
and roughly coincident with the basin of the 
Tonegawa, gives place on the west to the Kofu 
plateau, with an elevation i,ooo feet greater. 
The rugged ridges of eruptive rocks which form 
its eastern fringe are pierced by some forty 
tunnels in swift succession. We fondly imagined 
that these tunnels would afford a respite from 
the intense heat, but our hopes were vain. All 
the shorter ones were little better than ovens 
charged with a particularly dry and stifling air. 
By the end of the hour or so occupied in cover- 
ing this section of the line every woman in the 
carriage was in a state of collapse and every 
man had his head out of a window gasping for 
fresh air. 

Once upon the plateau all was well. Cool 
breezes and vistas of distant mountains had a 
reviving influence. To the south, towering above 
the seaward edge of the plateau, rose the leVel- 
crested cone of Fuji, while west and north the 

53 



Japan's Inheritance 



rugged outlines of Kimpuzan and other " granite 
giants " filled the horizon. On reaching Kofu 
we found that the good resolutions previously 
formed as to reaching Lake Suwa the same day 
had oozed out of our boots. We had taken six 
hours to traverse 70 miles and forty tunnels ; 
that seemed enough. Most of our fellow-pas- 
sengers were apparently of the same mind, and 
it was a thinly peopled train that steamed on 
towards the western confines of the plateau . For 
ourselves, we accepted the hospitality of the 
principal inn, whose ample grounds and i co-mat 
dining -hall, usually reserved for geisha dinners, 
quite annihilated all preconceived ideas as to 
the diminutiveness of Japanese hostelries. 

Our next day's objective lay some 60 miles 
to the north-west, and this we attained under 
more pleasant conditions. At an altitude of 
about 3,500 feet the railway crossed the water- 
shed between the Fuji and Tenryu rivers, with 
mountains of 10,000 feet on either hand. Most 
striking of these was the eight-peaked Yatsu- 
ga-take, an extinct volcano whose now verdant 
base we skirted till a bend in the line brought us 
in sight of a large, almost circular sheet of water, 
showing blue in the lap of grassy hills. This 
was the far-famed Suwa-ko, sourte of the 
Tenryugawa, Japan's " thundering Spey," whose 
grand rapids afford to those descending them 
as exciting an experience as could be sought. 

54 



Ways and Means 

On the northern shore of the lake issue some 
of those hot springs which in Japanese eyes are 
the sine qua nan of a hoHday resort. Here at 
an excellent yadoya (native inn) we lingered 
two days and took the waters, as expected of us. 
Enjoyment of this oft-repeated operation was 
somewhat diminished by the fact that, the bath- 
room being on a lower level than the adjacent 
street, our ablutions became a subject of absorb- 
ing interest to apparently the entire population 
of the village. One blazing afternoon we spared 
for a trip across the lake in a long and niarrow 
dug-out to the place where the Tenryu issues 
unobtrusively enough, despite its considerable 
size. From the moment of its birth the stream is 
harnessed to do the work of half a dozen silk- 
spinning mills, where female operatives create a 
record in the labour world by working one hun- 
dred hours a week and — what is still more 
wonderful — thriving on it. In winter, Suwa 
presents a different scene. Silent filatures look 
out upon a lake sufficiently frozen to stand the 
test of skating championships and even of 
vehicular traffic, though these are never per- 
mitted till the gods decree safety by cracking 
the ice. 

Here, next day, we took to the saddle and 
the road. Our route lay along the Nakasendo, 
that ancient " mid-mountain highway," origin- 
ally constructed (if tradition may be believed) 

55 



Japan's Inheritance 

at the time when Agricola was making roads 
in Britain. The roughness of the going induced 
sincere sympathy for the Dalmyo trains, which 
in bygone days had footed it so often along the 
road, all the way from Kyoto to Tokyo and 
back. Our scraggy stallions, however, with their 
unwonted burdens of weighty foreigners and 
much luggage, breasted the stony steepness of 
the Wada-toge with marvellous energy, and 
even found time, now and again, to snap 
viciously at each other, regardless of blows and 
curses from the bettos (grooms) trotting nimbly 
alongside. 

The Japanese pack-saddle is a severely prac- 
tical affair, constructed of the hardest wood 
imaginable and fitted with sundry excrescences 
from and about which impedimenta may be sus- 
pended and piled to an almost unlimited extent. 
Had we not had the forethought to provide our- 
selves with a number of futon (wadded cushions), 
with a view to mitigating the concussions in- 
separable from such a mode of travel, we should 
not have lived to tell the tale. As it was, we 
were able to behold from the top of the pass, 
with a moderate degree of comfort, the panorama 
of the Chikuma valley, bounded on the opposite 
side by the volcanic range which terminates in 
the colossal Asama. By nightfall we found our- 
selves comfortably seated in the coffee-room of 
a " foreign " hotel, presided over by a Japanese 

56 



Ways and Means 

waiter in regulation evening dress, under whose 
majestic eye half a score of nesans shuffled to 
and fro in the duties of service . And in our hearts 
we blessed the missionaries who bought up land 
at Karuizawa and made it, first, a resting-place 
for themselves, and from that a popular health 
resort for foreigners in general. But Karuizawa 
has its defects. It has not enough cold water 
and no hot ; and there is a painful dearth of 
shade. Still, in the season, it has lectures, 
prayer-meetings, tennis tournaments, and tea- 
parties ! With many good folk these are the 
main things — even in a summer resort ! 

Another 30-mile journey by pack-horse led us 
next day past a silent but still impressive 
scene of destruction, where a dense primeval 
forest had been cut in two by a flood of molten 
rock, the work of Asama's great eruption in 
1783. Thence descending, we crossed the 
Agatsumagawa, a stream as vivacious as the 
other was deadly still, and made our way north- 
ward across the uplands to a summer resort 
whose claims to popularity have more than an 
element of contradiction, for at the same time 
it boasts the coolest climate and the hottest 
mineral springs. Unlike Karuizawa, which is 
deserted in the winter months, Kusatsu has a 
permanent population, which in cold weather par- 
boils itself four times a day, with excellent effect, 
it is said, on the general health. In July and 

57 



Japan's Inheritance 



August, however, there is as much disease of the 
loathsome sort concentrated within the four 
corners of this village as, probably, in any other 
space of equal area in the world. Lepers are 
provided with a separate quarter, but in other 
public baths — little more than tanks built round 
with sheds — it is a common sight to see sufferers 
from various forms of skin disease submitting 
themselves to water at i2o°E., with the sting 
of free sulphuric acid added to its torturing 
heat. 

Kusatsu lies at an elevation of nearly 
4,000 feet above sea-level, but the pass above 
it, which has to be negotiated before the railway 
can be rejoined, rises 3,500 feet higher. The 
Shibu-tog6, as it is called, ranks as one of the 
loftiest and finest in this land of many passes. 
On the eastern side the ascent is short and sharp ; 
on the west, terraces alternate with steep descents, 
giving rise to glassy lakelets on the levels and 
grand cascades in the gorges. Near the summit 
extends a weird assemblage of mountain pines, 
cold and ghostly looking, without a vestige of 
bark or foliage. They were blasted some thirty 
years ago by the breath of the White Mountain, 
a bare cone of volcanic ash, which rises a few 
hundred feet above the crest of the pass three 
miles to the south. Several times in descending 
we were obliged to dismount. In some places 
the path was dangerously steep, at others recent 

58 



Ways and Means 



landslides had reduced it to a perilous state, and 
the torrent roared between gloomy rock -walls 
hundreds of feet below. 

We were now fairly on the western slope. 
Through the broad valley on which we looked 
flowed the largest of Japan's rivers, bound for 
the Western Sea. Thirty miles north the imposing 
range which flanked the valley on the farther 
side sank in bold bluffs and cliffs into the same 
smooth sea. The soothing waters of Shibu, one 
of the most popular of Japanese spas, gave us of 
their virtue that night, assisted by the ministra- 
tions of an amma-san (blind shampooer). At 
sunset the following evening, after a short journey 
by basha and rail, we beheld from a long stretch 
of sandy shore the sun set red and fierce about 
some scattered specks of cloud against the sky- 
line, which to fancy's eye might have been the 
outlines of the Liancourt Rocks, where the 
flying remnants of Rodjesvensky's beaten fleet 
fell a prey to the watchful Kamimura. It was 
the last we were to see of the sun for many 
days . 

Save for a flf teen -hour ride in the train to take 
us back to the starting-point, our adventures 
seemed at an end. But we had reckoned without 
the weather. That night the doyo ended in howl- 
ing winds and steadily descending rain. Once 
in the Tokyo " express," we affected to ignore 
the downpour. We even wired to friends at 

59 



Japan's Inheritance 

home to expect us the following morning. To 
the accompaniment of much shrieking and 
groaning from the engine, we passed Karuizawa 
in the gathering twilight and plunged into the 
first of the twenty -six Usui-toge tunnels. Facllis 
descensus Averni it seemed, and such, in fact, it 
proved. Near the end of the series the train 
pulled up with a grinding shock — tunnel No. 23 
was down. Assisted by a landslide, the front 
of it had collapsed, and the line was hopelessly 
blocked. Presently an official in oilskins, from 
which the rain streamed like a cataract, en- 
lightened us as to the situation, and urbanely 
offered to guide us, along with the other passen- 
gers, to the nearest village. The two -mile tramp 
over the mountain -side in the darkness and rain 
was a weird experience, though our experiences 
at the village inn were, in their way, as weird. 
The accommodation proved quite unequal to the 
strain imposed by this nocturnal invasion of a 
hundred unexpected visitors, and after an unsuc- 
cessful attempt on the part of mine host to induce 
us to share the same room as an American pro- 
fessor, his wife, and daughter (the only foreign 
passengers besides ourselves), we were compelled 
to share a six -mat » room with double that 

^ The size of rooms in Japanese houses is indicated by the 
number of mats (tatami) covering the floor. Each of these 
measures 6 feet by 3 feet, so that a six-mat room would 
measure 12 feet by 9 feet. 

60 



Ways and Means 

number of Japanese. Even so we were envied 
of many, for we succeeded in effecting our return 
to civilization the next day. Floods swept the 
country with extraordinary persistence, and it 
was a full fortnight before the next train could 
safely come down from the highlands to the 
plain. 



6i 



CHAPTER IV 
THE TYPICALLY JAPANESE LANDSCAPE 

Harmonious curves — Does this mean insignificance ? — Erosive 
agencies — The raw material of the Japanese landscape — 
Two types of scenery — Soft contours not necessarily 
" little " — The " typically Japanese " landscape— Sagami's 
pine-clad hills — A rising coast — The sankei — Matsushima 
— Miyajima — Ama-no-hashidate — Other " Japanesey " 
scenes — Nikko, a microcosm of Japan — Granite hills — 
A volcanic group — Fuji's mirrors 

Beauty, in Nature, is a matter of harmonious 
curves. In most landscapes these are the result 
of stream-erosion. Of such Japan has her share 
— perhaps more than her share . Over and above, 
she has the harmonious curves created by- 
volcanic force. Logarithmic, Science calls them ; 
but their mathematical correctness in no way- 
impairs their grace. Many a Japanese landscape 
has thus a double endowment, from sources dis- 
tinct in nature and origin. While Beauty 
abounds, some of it bears, with all its smooth- 
ness, a hint of the sublime. 

It is not surprising, then, that Japan has been 

62 



The Typically Japanese Landscape 

called a land of " soft contours " — though, as 
we shall see, this is not true of the country as 
a whole. In consequence of the general and 
apparently authoritative use of the term, the " un- 
pardonable sin " of insignificance has been laid 
at the door of Japanese scenery ; and it is further 
accused of a lack of variety. These charges 
would seem to be based either on a confusion 
of ideas or on an acquaintance limited to the 
rnore frequented parts of the country. Let us 
hear the witnesses for the defence. 

" Caledonia stern and wild " has been apos- 
trophized as " land of the mountain and the 
flood." Japan is much more so. Its narrow 
islands are crowded with mountains of more 
than average height. On gradients of unusual 
steepness heavy and at times torrential rains 
descend. Snow lies over a large part of the 
interior during the winter months and quickly 
melts in spring. Thus are developed a vast 
number of streams of high erosive capacity. 
When to these agencies are added such factors 
as typhoons and monsoonal winds, tidal waves 
and destructive earthquakes — all operating in a 
climate of considerable extremes of heat and 
cold — it will be seen that here, if anywhere, 
Nature is mistress of the situation. Every- 
where in its earth-forms the Japanese landscape 
bears " the marks of that which once hath 
been; but the scars are bravely worn." 

63 



Japan's Inheritance 



Soft contours are not, however, the sole pro- 
duct of erosive action. Agents of terrestrial wear 
and tear, acting on certain land surfaces, are 
capable of producing the boldest outlines. So 
much depends upon the raw materials out of 
which Nature has to evolve her finished product 
— the harmonious landscape — that we must ask 
what, in Japan's case, they are. 

It has been the custom to compare the 
England of the East with the England of the 
West in situation. In structure the resemblance 
is less marked. The summit of the British anti- 
cline is in the west, and consequently such 
scenery as has a claim to grandeur must be 
sought there. The soft contours occur where 
strata of moderate age have been deposited over 
areas not subjected subsequently to any great 
tectonic disturbance — as in our southern Downs ; 
and where certain foundation rocks, lying con- 
formably, have been exposed mainly to erosive 
influences — as in the rolling " hog backs " of 
Dartmoor. In Japan the summit of the anti- 
cline occupies the centre, a belt of ruggedness 
on either side. The middle-aged strata, so pro- 
ductive of " soft " landscapes, are hardly any- 
where to be seen. Over large areas they have 
been worn out of existence, and their meagre 
remains are not sufficient to affect the scenery 
to any appreciable extent. Practically the whole 
land surface of the Japanese islands consists of 

64 



The Typically Japanese Landscape 

the oldest rocks — ^granite and schists— with a 
fringe (by no means continuous) along the 
coastal districts of Tertiary or recent formations. 
In many cases these are only there because they 
have been protected by the sea, from which they 
have recently risen. 

Long before Tertiary times, and again during 
that period, wide tracts of the interior as well 
as stretches of the coast — amounting in all to 
two-fifths of the total area of the country — were 
overlaid by volcanic formations and ejectamenta, 
which have given, as it were, another face to 
the areas in question. 

We thus have two distinct types of scenery 
in Japan. Where primeval strata have been sub- 
jected to violent earth -movements, there is the 
grand and rugged — comparable with that of 
North Wales or the Western Highlands, but on 
a larger scale. Scenery of this type is to be 
found in the central parts of each of the four 
main islands — more especially in Hondo and 
Yezo. Elsewhere are the soft contours — them- 
selves the product of three different sets of 
circumstances. They may be due to denuded 
granitic formations, as over large areas in 
Western Japan and on both sides of the Inland 
Sea ; or they may be the result of volcanic action 
— comparatively recent cones, or old ones worn 
down into domelike hills — in various parts of 
the country ; or, again, they may have been 

65 E 



Japan's Inheritance 



fashioned by erosive action out of the newer for- 
mations of the coast districts. Mutatis mutan- 
dis, these last give rise to land-forms not unlike 
those of the Hampshire Basin — with this differ- 
ence, that the deposits out of which the hills 
and bluffs have been carved often consist not 
of gravel and alluvial soils, but of volcanic tuff. 
As an example of the rapidity with which stream 
erosion works upon this material, I may mention 
the case of a rivulet in the Asama foothills which, 
diverted by an obstruction near its source, struck 
out a new course for itself and, during one week 
of incessant rain, carved out of deposits of 
volcanic lapilli a bed 50 to 100 feet in depth. 

To the complexities of the Japanese landscape 
this brief statement — aided by the key -map — will 
serve as a rough-and-ready guide. 

The scenery which is " soft," is it necessarily 
" little " ? In most countries, no doubt, as 
natural features increase in scale, they take on 
a grand or rugged mien. It is, however, a 
characteristic of Japanese scenery that even when 
on a considerable scale it often remains " soft." 
Its very shapeliness deceives the eye. This is 
the case with such districts as Nikko, where the 
" hills " (as people will persist in calling them), 
though twice the height of the Grampians of 
North Britain, appeal to the spectator rather by 
their grace than by their majesty. Similarly 
it is difficult to realize that the grassy knolls 

66 



The Typically Japanese Landscape 

which encircle the summer resort of Karuizawa, 
in Central Japan — hills not nearly so imposing as 
those about Dorking — rise from a plateau which 
itself stands at a greater height above sea-level 
than the summit of Scafell. 

The scenery which is both " little " and " soft " 
has been called " typically Japanese." Gene- 
rally speaking, it is of Tertiary age. Doubtless 
the association of these term's has given rise to 
the idea of insignificance. There is no reason, 
of course, why such scenery should not be beau- 
tiful. Proportion, variety and grace of form, 
freshness and contrast of colour may — and, in 
Japan, often do — combine to produce an effect 
of real charm. But another question arises : Is 
the scenery described — and often decried — as 
" typically Japanese " really so, or has it come 
to be so known because it is most frequently 
depicted in books and works of art, and has 
therefore had the attention of the world drawn 
specially to it? 

One has not to travel far to find the 
"typically Japanese" landscape. It is almost 
invariably on or near the coast. The wooded 
bluffs and shores of the Sagam.i Peninsula, south 
of Yokohama, furnish numerous examples. On 
account of its romantic aspect this region has 
come to be known among foreigners as the Plains 
of Heaven — though plains there are none. On 

one of these fantastic heights, by a giant pine 

67 



Japan's Inheritance 

which com'm.ands a view of the coast about the 
tidal lagoon of Kanazawa, an old-time Japanese 
artist flung his pencil from him in despair, un- 
able to do justice to the scene. Thence descent 
may be made by steep escarpments daintily set 
with pines and bamboo grass to the Pacific 
at Kamakura ; or, eastward, to the maze of 
evergreen hills overlooking the naval station 
of Yukosuka, on Tokyo Bay. The wooded 
eminence known as Anjin-zuka, which bears 
on its crest the tomb of Will Adams, the first 
Englishman to set foot in Japan, is as charac- 
teristic as any. From such a point of vantage 
one may peer through gnarled and wind-swept 
pine-trunks upon deep-seamed valleys carpeted 
with the virid patch\vork of ricefields, and flanked 
with a few wood-and-paper cottages, picturesque 
for all their flimsiness. Above the brown- 
thatched roofs graceful bamboo -groves give yet 
another distinctive note of form and colour, while 
beyond, a line of white, verdure -crested cliffs 
merges with the sea, on whose blue bosom a 
fleet of ruddy-sailed fishing-boats drifts home- 
ward with the tide. 

An old tradition says that the double-peaked 
mountain of Tsubuka, 40 miles inland from 
Tokyo, was once washed by the Pacific — as, 
indeed, its name suggests. The old tradition is 
probably correct, for these coastal districts of 
Eastern Japan have for centuries been rising 

68 





SOFT CONTOURS : " PLAINS OF 
HEAVEN," SAGAMI. 



GRAVE OF WILL ADAMS AND HIS 
JAPANESE WIFE, NEAR YOKOSUKA. 




MAN AND WIFE ROCKS : FUTAMI, ISE. 

The straw rope symbolizes conjugal union. 



To face p. ( 



The Typically Japanese Landscape 

from the sea. As a result of this secular move- 
ment many of the inshore islands have been, or 
are being, united with the mainland. At the 
Yokohama Bluff and at Nojima, on the east side 
of Sagami Peninsula, the unifying process is com- 
plete ; at Enoshima, on the west, it is still in 
progress. The sandbank connecting the latter 
with the mainland being partly submerged at 
high water, a frail wooden causeway (which does 
not seem to have been designed to support 
foreign avoirdupois) gives access to the " island." 
Equinoctial gales and typhoons are wont to treat 
this airy structure with scant respect ; but if 
the Japanese possess their souls in patience — a 
quality to them as second nature — they will ere 
long be able to pass to this favoured spot dry- 
shod. With its quaint village, wealth of pines, 
and luxuriant undergrowth, Enoshima is pictur- 
esque enough, but to acclaim it the superior of 
Clovelly, as one English writer has done, is rash 
indeed. The southern end of the island faces 
the Pacific with commendable boldness, but the 
cliff is not half the height of Gallantry Bower. 
Its base is pierced by a good-sized cave, at whose 
inner extremity, redeemed from Cimmerian dark- 
ness by numerous wax lights, the visitor is intro- 
duced with due ceremony to a shrine dedicated 
to Benten, the Goddess of Luck. Erom behind 
this oratory a subterranean passage is said to 
lead to the sacred Euji, whose majestic form, 

69 



Japan's Inheritance 

in full view from the cliff above, dominates the 
western horizon. Close inquiry into the course and 
nature of this passage is not encouraged loc'ally. 

No landscape from which water is absent finds 
much favour in Japanese eyes. If brawling 
stream or waterfall cannot be had, then let it 
be a wide expanse, smooth and lagoon-like for 
choice. Typically Japanese though the scenes 
just considered may be, they do not, to the native 
mind, attain the ideal. What that ideal is may 
be gathered from a consideration of the three 
scenes singled out by the Japanese themselves 
as the most admirable of all. These sankei, or 
three finest landscapes, are Matsushima, in 
North-eastern Japan ; Miyajima, in the Inland 
Sea ; and Ama-no-hashidate, in the west — all 
coastal scenes. 

Matsushima (" Pine Islands ") is aptly named. 
The shallow bay of Sendai swarms with eight 
hundred of them, of all shapes and sizes, varying 
in height from a few feet to 300 ; but for the most 
part 30 to 50 feet. Soft, white piles of volcanic 
tuff, each with its crown of twisted pines, rise 
oddly out of blue, placid waters ; and great the 
joy of the holiday-making Japanese as he glides 
in and out the maze in a gaily decked sampan. 
The archipelago is considered to extend as far 
as, and including, Kinkwazan — a distance of 
nearly 50 miles. Neither geologically, however, 
nor from the scenic point of view, does the 

70 




■r^=; ""S-tS*,- -V 




GRANITE TOKII AT MIYAJIMA. 



AMA-NO-HASHIDATE (" LADDER OF HEAVE 




=4*^ 



MATSUSHIMA (" PINE ISLANDS") : SOME OF THE EIGHT HUNDRED. 

These three scenes are known to the Japanese as the Sankei, or Three Finest Landscapes. 



To f ice p. 70. 



■i 



The Typically Japanese Landscape 

famous " Gold Flower " island belong to the 
group. A peninsula cuts it off from the bay; 
and its height of 1,500 feet, the ruggedness 
of its features, and its structure of granite and 
sparkling micaceous schists — whence, in fact, its 
name — indicate its kinship with the ancient east- 
coast range. 

At Miyajima (" Shrine Island ") the religious 
element predominates. The island, in fact, is 
too sacred for children to be born on it. Every 
effort is made to prevent deaths taking place, 
and, should such unhappy event occur, corpse 
and mourners are removed with all haste to the 
mainland. Secure amid the genial surroundings 
of the Inland Sea Miyajima lies, a temple garden, 
delightful in form and foliage. A torii of 
singular, if substantial, beauty, which at flood- 
tide stands out of the water, proclaims the 
presence of the shrine, dedicated to the three 
daughters of Susano-o, " the Impetuous Male." 
By night, for a fee which varies according to the 
Chief Abbot's diagnosis of his visitor, the lights 
may be turned on — that is to say, the tapers in 
the myriad paper-lanterns hung all over the 
island will be kindled, to the delight of the 
assembled multitude on the opposite shore, no 
less than to the satisfaction of the visiting 
plutocrat himself. 

Ama-no-hashidate (" Ladder of Heaven ") is 
perhaps the most characteristic and *' Japanesey " 

71 



Japan's Inheritance 



of the sankel. A Buddhist shrine on an over- 
looking hill commemorates the story of the pious 
sixth-century hermit, to avert whose threatened 
death from starvation merciful Kwannon trans- 
formed herself into a deer. Seen from this 
height, a spit of golden sand, dotted with 
specks of green — these are the inevitable pines 
— all but seals the mouth of a lagoon from 
inroads of the sea. Breakers may thunder 
without ; but within is the stillness of a mill- 
pond. The " ladder " is some 60 yards wide 
and nearly 2 miles in length. To walk — or, 
better still, to rlklsha — along this doubly washed 
strand under the storm -bowed trees is to the 
aesthetic Japanese the keenest of delights. The 
coast in this vicinity is bold and granitic ; there 
is no pettiness about Ama-no-hashidate. 

Among other scenes scarcely less admired by 
the Japanese is Waka-no-ura, on the Kii Channel. 
Here a narrow pine-covered peninsula, flanked 
by low, grassy islands, gives character to 
the charms of a little bay. In a well-known 
stanza the poet Akahito aptly indicates the 
features which specially appeal to the cultured 
Japanese. Mr. B. H. Chamberlain's rendering 
is as follows : — 

["On the shore of Waka 

When the tide comes flowing in 
There being no dry land, 
Towards the reedy place 
The storks fly cross-wise, crying." 
72 



The Typically Japanese Landscape 

Of a somewhat similar type is the wider 
expanse of the Hamana or Totomi " Sea," which 
a rude earthquake, by breaking down the slender 
spit between, transformed from a lake into a 
lagoon. The Man and Wife Rocks of Futami, 
in Ise, with a straw rope connecting them as 
an emblem of conjugal union, constitute a 
favourite scene and art motive. On bolder, 
but no less beautiful, lines, the Bay of Enoura 
shows volcanic highlands, easing off with many 
a shapely cove and headland into alluvial flats. 
In the course of a dozen miles one may pass 
from the deep land-locked Bay of Heda, backed 
by rugged andesitic hills, 2,000 feet in height, 
to the smooth dunes of Shizuura, where ancient 
contorted pines droop over golden sands and 
softly lapping waves. 

Should water on an ample scale be wanting, 
Japanese taste demands by way of compensation 
the presence of striking and fantastic rock-forms. 
These are usually supplied by the products of 
volcanic action — basaltic columns or curiously 
worn agglomerate. The perpendicular pine- 
crowned cliffs of Shimokuzan, on the Kumano 
River, form a favourite subject for Japanese 
artists ; and the extraordinarily weathered peaks 
and gorges of Yabakei, in Kyushu, have clearly 
suggested the " impossible mountains " so often 
depicted on Japanese screens and kakemono. 

That the Japanese themselves are conscious 

73 



Japan's Inheritance 

of the deficiencies in point of scale shared by 
their chosen scenes is suggested by their own 
saying, Nlkko wo minal uchi wa, " kekko " to 
lu na! (Say not "magnificent" till you have 
seen Nikko). According to the popular story, 
this famous district owes its name to the Buddhist 
saint, Kobo Daishi. In his day — i.e., about 
820 A.D. — it was known as Ni-ko-san, or " two- 
storm mountain " — an allusion to the biannual 
or equinoctial gales which were believed to issue 
from a cave on Nantaisan, the principal peak 
of the district, just as the winds in classical 
mythology were sent forth by vEolus from the 
caverns of Etna. The worthy Abbot, however, 
changed it to Nik-ko-san, *' Mountain of the 
Sun's Brightness," and so it remains to this day. 
Both names are appropriate enough. Storm and 
sunshine visit Nikko with strict impartiality, 
though many an unsophisticated foreigner, 
reaching it in the depths of the nyubai (rainy 
season) or at the time of the autumnal equinox, 
may think otherwise. This much, at least, may 
be said. Nikko is terrible enough in time of 
rain, with its roar of " waters fast prevailing." 
But when its delights of form and colour are 
bathed in sunshine, dead indeed must be the 
soul that does not say, " Magnificent I " 

Like the English Lake District, which in many 
respects it resembles, Nikko is of volcanic origin. 
There is, however, the difference that, in its case, 

74 



The Typically Japanese Landscape 

the evidences remain almost as they were left. 
Time and circumstance have not yet succeeded 
in breaking down the soft contours into scarps 
and pinnacles like those of Helvellyn and Scafell. 
Nantaisan still sweeps elegantly skywards from 
the placid shores of Lake Chuzenji, an all but 
perfect cone ; and no one would suspect the 
mighty dome of Shiranesan^ which towers over 
Lake Yumoto, of holding in its depths a fearsome 
crater, still warm from a destructive outburst 
thirty years ago. But Nikko's contours, if soft, 
are not small. Take the English Lake District, 
double its vertical scale, add verdure in every 
conceivable shade, add the wayside Buddhas, the 
high-perched tea-house, the sombre touch of the 
groves where the Shoguns lie — more impressive 
even than their gorgeous shrines — add withal that 
eerie but indescribable air of the past — and you 
have Nikko. 

Soft contours due to granitic formations pre- 
dominate over the greater part of Western and 
West-Central Hondo. They also occur in North- 
West Kyushu, and at intervals on either side of 
the Inland Sea. Owing to the rapidity of the 
denudation, the slopes of the hills are abrupt, 
and the valleys narrow. The disintegration of 
the granite gives rise to a dry, gritty soil of a 
yellowish tint, which affords scant encourage- 
ment to vegetation. Scrub oak and stunted 
pines, with more root than branch, clothe the 

75 



Japan's Inheritance 

open hill-sides. From these parts of the country 
the vivid green of the ricefield is to a large 
extent absent ; and all except the largest and 
best-watered valleys share the sterility of the 
uplands . 

Volcanic formations on a moderate scale often 
give rise to scenery of the graceful order. Of 
such is the district of Hakon^, between the heads 
of the Sagami and Suruga Bays, in Eastern 
Japan. Viewed from the sea, it presents a group 
of strikingly bold, but at the same time rounded, 
peaks. A closer acquaintance shows the moun- 
tains to be volcanic domes of great age. Traces 
of craters may be seen — though not as a rule 
on the summits ; and a solfatara has transformed 
the flanks of one of the peaks into what the 
Japanese call jigoku (" hell "). The highest of 
the group, which just falls short of 5,000 feet, 
is wooded to its summit. In every direction 
the valleys present a wealth and variety of 
vegetation which go far to dispose of the theory 
that the products of volcanic action furnish an 
infertile soil. The whole gorge of the Haya- 
kawa — especially in the vicinity of Miyanoshita — 
is of great luxuriance and beauty. Although, 
a thousand feet up, it vibrates with the roar 
and bubble of the " hells," above the wooden 
eaves of " the globe-trotters' paradise " it sings 
the lullaby of countless brooks and waterfalls. 

Suppose the traveller to be set down on the 

76 




SOFT CONTOURS IN A VOLCANIC REGION (hAKONE). 
The road is the old Tokaido {Eastern Sea road). 




THE GORGE OF YABAKEI, KYUSHU. 

Where quaint formatiens have been carved out of deep deposits of agglomerate. 



To face p. 76. 



The Typically Japanese Landscape 

summit of the pass between the Hakone basin 
proper and the valley of the Hayakawa. It is 
2,800 feet above the sea, whose blue expanse, 
cut by the white Sagami cliffs, fills in the eastern 
horizon. Exposed as they are to typhoon and 
north-easter alike, the hill-sides on either hand 
can boast no better covering than bamboo-grass 
and mountain pine, with reeds in the moisture - 
holding hollows. A few yards down the ridge 
the road skirts the edge of a circular mere, 
steeply held on all sides but one. It is a filled- 
in crater, eloquent of other days when here 
was no road for mortal feet. Near by a huge 
rock, 30 feet high, has been fashioned (tradi- 
tion says, by the hand of Kobo Daishi, in a 
single night) into the similitude of Jizo, the 
children's god. On and down winds the road 
with increasing gradient, till, at a bend, the 
eastern half of Lake Hakone, embosomed in 
shapely hills, lies blue and smooth below. As 
one descends the picture grows, till, when the 
margin of the lake is reached, it receives the 
finishing touch. The " Sea of Reeds," as 
the Japanese call it, is but a mirror for the 
portrayal of F.uji's airs and graces. There in 
its sapphire depths lies the image of the world's 
fairest mountain — dark blue, and limned in fiery 
gold. Looking heavenwards, the spectator sees 
the mountain itself, and forthwith forgets the 
lake. For the splintered crest of the great cone, 

77 



Japan's Inheritance 

based, as it seems, on a rose-tinted sea of mist, 
rises 10,000 feet above those still waters, and 
no more than i 5 miles away as the crow flies . 

There is only one thing more beautiful than 
this vision of Fuji at sunset. It is the same 
vision at sunrise. For choice, let the time be 
early winter, when the clear air brings the moun- 
tain closer, when its streaks and furrows show 
in strong relief, and the snow-cap steals far down 
the cone . To watch, in those still waters, and then 
on the peak itself, the first pink flush of dawn 
upon those virgin snows, deepening into crimson 
and passing thence to gold, while all the world 
below lies in gloom, is to see, under the most 
favourable conditions, that wonderful blending of 
perfect form and choicest colour which makes 
Fuji the most beautiful of all Earth's mountains. 



78 



CHAPTER V 

LAKE AND STREAM 

Unruly rivers — Merriment and mischief — Some lordly streams 
— The Sandai-ka — Timber-felling — Objection to ferry- 
ing — Rapids, down and up — River scenery — Waterfalls, 
a question of terms — Characteristic cascades — Lakes 
of depression — Chuzenji — Fuji's mirrors and their 
problems 

An unruly and inconstant thing is the Japanese 
river. One \veek a raging torrent, scorning — 
to the peril of the country-side — the limits which 
Nature and man have set it ; the next a mean- 
dering brook, scarcely visible amid the waste 
itself has 'spread, the wreckage of a hundred 
hills. One stream, indeed, which hurries from 
the highlands of Kii, has been named Otonashi, 
the " Quiet River ".; but this, I fear, is " writ sar- 
kastikul." There is only one really well-behaved 
river in Japan — the Kitakami, and it can hardly 
help being good. For, at bidding of the gods, 
it gushed out of a rock to save an army from 
perishing of thirst ; and thereafter, being 

79 



Japan's Inheritance 



jealously guided by two parallel ranges of 
mountains, makes its way smoothly to the sea. 

Nearly all the rivers of Japan are of the 
cross-country sort. Rising in the midst, on the 
dip of the backbone range, they set their course 
transversely for the sea. Not, indeed, as flies 
the crow, for they twist and turn amazingly. 
Now they drive a headlong gorge, now they 
fetch a compass, and even end sometimes by 
taking the opposite direction to that in which 
they started. That river of heroic origin, of 
which I spoke just now, is one among a 
thousand ; it runs always with the set of the 
islands, not against. The North River, men call 
it, with due homage to its individuality, for the 
rest are mainly east and west. Straight from 
that quarter, indeed, it flows, and so with steady 
current to its ocean bourne. Where the sea- 
ward barrier of its basin ends, there ends it. 

Most rivers, in other lands, are wont to mis- 
conduct themselves in winter. Not so the rivers 
of Japan. They make merry in the dog-days. 
For heat means the south wind ; and the south 
wind means rain — the Black Stream and the 
mountains between them see to that. On those 
same highlands, too, the locked-up moisture of 
the winter is at last let loose, and the s:ix-m'onth 
snow-slope descends in boisterous flood. All of 
which means high water in the plain. To the 
swollen stream, the unnatural ramparts on either 

80 



Lake and Stream 

hand are an insult. For of what do you 
suppose they are made? Of huge wicker- 
baskets crammed with stones — the very stones 
the stream has brought ! Forthwith it challenges 
their strength to hold it. Beyond, as often as 
not, lie ricefields, or, athwart, a railway. But 
the uprisen torrent is no respecter of either. So 
the peasants of the neighbouring gun, who have 
toiled to secure the watering of their fields in 
moderation, get a destroying deluge. As for 
the railway, it collapses. A useless thread of 
steel, robbed of its solid piers, is left to be 
mocked by the triumphant stream ; trains are 
held up, and the Department of Communications 
has to come to the rescue in a hurry, and at great 
expense. That the Japanese river should take 
" a short life and a merry one " for its 'motto is 
no subject for complaint. Unfortunately, the 
merriment seldom stops short of mischief. 

Yet there are lordly streams. The Shinano 
with its 300 miles is such, though a man may 
stand on its bar and still have his head above 
water. That is but the fault of its bringing more 
than it can carry away — or, as our American 
friends would say, of its biting off more than 
it can chew. In this regard it has numerous 
little assistant-streams from the Echigo Moun- 
tains, which bring down tons of alluvium with 
every shower. So that, while in its middle 
course it is a noble river with a well -filled width 

81 F 



Japan's Inheritance 

of 1,500 yards, it loses in dignity towards its 
mouth, and makes a tame finish amid sand-dunes 
on the Western Sea. Look again at the 
Tonegawa. When once it leaves the mountains, 
between the serrated peaks of 'Haruna and 
Akagi, it pursues through the wide Kuwanto a 
course of great respectability — its broad and com- 
paratively placid waters busy with craft of all 
descriptions. True, a bad example was set its 
lovely but impetuous affluent, the Agatsuma, by 
that violent volcano Asama, whose ill-controlled 
eruptions have often dammed its course ; but 
these evil communications have not corrupted 
the good manners of the Tonegawa. Fifty miles 
from its estuary it has volume enough to spare 
for a substantial branch, the Yedogawa, which 
in bygone days gave name to Tokyo Bay. Nor 
is this its final effort. For years innumerable, 
helped by the Kuroshiwo and the slowly rising 
coast, it has been thrusting itself seawards. 
There, in the teeth of the Pacific surges, it has 
spread the waste of Japan's widest plain and 
made in it a maze of meres — " broads," like 
those of Norfolk, on a larger scale. At some 
future age the wide acres about its many mouths 
— useless now, because so painfully new — will 
be enlivened by the flaming petticoats of 
Japanese peasant-girls, a-busy in the ricefields. 
But perhaps the lordliest of all is the Ishikari, 
of the severer North. For this is more than a 

82 



Lake and Stream 

stream, it is a system. It has all but the whole 
of one of Yezo's " facets " to itself, and, with 
the aid of many tributaries, brings more water 
to the sea than any other Japanese river. Some 
authorities even give it precedence over the 
Shinanogawa in point of length. Rising high 
on the central buttress of the " Northern Cross," 
it flows first, with many a rapid, through a 
series of basaltic ravines with precipitous sides, 
then through " a park-like plain, bounded on 
three sides by wooded mountains," over which 
broods " a deep stillness broken only by the 
murmuring of distant rapids or the cries of birds 
and wild animals." On either bank " grassy 
tracts abounding with flowers " alternate with 
forests of willow, maple, oak, and walnut, the 
fallen timber of which often blocks the current. 
At Asahigawa, however, the scene is changed. 
The human element comes in, in the shape of 
the Seventh Division of the Northern Army, of 
which that place is the headquarters. By the 
time Sapporo is reached, officialdom pervades 
the land — this capital is of the sort that was not 
born, but made. Just before, the Chitose affluent 
(which swarms with salmon) has swelled the 
volume of its parent stream with the overflow 
of Japan's sublimest lake — Shikotsu. Thus 
reinforced, Ishikari passes through ample 
alluvial marshlands to the sea. 

In the very heart of Hondo, midway on the 

83 



Japan's Inheritance 

Mid-mountain road, one of Japan's most famous 
passes is crowned by a sacred gateway of 
imposing size. Men call it, therefore, the 
Torii-toge. That the pass should be thus dis- 
tinguished is fitting enough, for it rises in full 
view of a mountain which concedes to Fuji alone 
the distinction of being the most sacred moun- 
tain of Japan. That the torii should be of 
granite is also as it should be ; for the peak in 
question is one of Japan's fire-born giants. But 
nearer than the great mountain, at the spectator's 
feet, lies the cradle of the Kiso-gawa, third and 
most beautiful of Hondo's Sandai-ka (three 
great rivers). So vast a timber -felling industry 
is pursued in the forests which clothe its upper 
valley, that the river appears to have " more 
wood than water." ^ The trees, on being felled, 
are simply flung into the stream, branded with 
their owner's mark. At the mouth of the river, 
a hundred miles away, they are collected again. 
Quite a number of men find employment along 
the banks in thrusting stranded logs back into 
the current. In older times, when the forests 
belonged to the Daimyo of Owari, it was for- 
bidden to touch the more valuable hard-wood 
trees, hinoki and keyakl, under pain of death. 
Chaos descended upon this region at the time of 

^ Nearly a million and a half cubic feet of timber, valued 
at ^70,000, are felled annually, the profits ranging from 50 
to 100 per cent. 

84 



Lake and Stream 

the Restoration, and wholesale deforestation took 
place. Now that the forests are mainly Crown 
property, due supervision prevails once more, 
though without recourse to the heroic measure 
of shooting trespassers on sight. 

Like most Japanese rivers, the Kisogawa, ere 
it meets the sea, lapses into evil ways. Dikes, 
embankments, bridges, and what not have been 
devised to take the Nagoya-Nara railway across 
its mouth ; but the best of them is apt to succumb 
to the attack of the Kiso in spate. When all is 
said and done, however, this river is virtuous by 
comparison with its neighbour, the Oigawa. That 
ill-mannered stream has always declined to be 
ferried. Before railways came into existence, 
its passage formed the most exciting of the 
Tokaldo Go-ja-san Tsugi (Fifty-three Stages of 
the Eastern Highway). Travellers used to be 
carried across on small wooden platforms 
supported by clothesless coolies, who, it is said, 
were wont to choose the deepest parts of the 
stream, that, by terrifying their passengers, they 
might obtain a larger fee. This was, of course, 
at ordinary times. When the 50-yard stream 
expanded to a mile — the full width of its stony 
bed — passage of any sort was out of the question. 

But if most of Japan's rivers are unreliable 
as means of communication, and some are even 
too swift for ferrying, others are " just right " 
for rapids. By rapids I mean, of course, those 

85 



Japan's Inheritance 



that can be shot. And shooting, in faith, it is. 
I cannot believe that to be carried on planks 
across a river, as in the old days, was really more 
exciting than to be whirled down -stream' in a 
flimsy punt, where a river nears the point when 
not even the coolest boatman will take a fare. 
In the one case, your safety depended on four 
men, and they, after all, within their depth, and 
on terra firma of a sort. In the other, the 
wholeness of your bones, your life itself, are 
absolutely in the hands of the man at the helm. 
One false stroke of his long oar, and the boat 
will smash, broadside on, against that outstanding 
wall of smooth black rock whereon the river hurls 
itself, and, beaten, sweeps away in a wide froth- 
lined curve to the remoter bank. So swift and 
strange is the motion set up by the swoops and 
flights of this " brown bird upon the river " as 
to give rise at one moment to the giddiness 
caused, by vision from' its edge, of a beetling 
cliff ; at the next, to the sinking sensation in 
the pit of the stomach experienced in going 
down a coal-mine. Then, when the river is all 
white and uprising rocks all black, and no sound 
can be heard above its roaring, and one is 
obviously going downhill, the sensation re- 
sembles that of descending a water-chute with- 
out the soothing subconsciousness that you will 
be landed safely at the end. Not that there are 
many accidents ; quite the contrary. For the 

86 





RAPIDS OF THE FUJIKAWA. 



RIVER SCENE, WESTERN JAPAN. 




ONAMI-IKE, CRATER LAKE, KIRISHIMA. 

The lake occupies a lateral crater f mile wide, from which the summit-cone may be seen 
rising on the left. 



Lake and Stream 

sendo (boatmen) know the river to a turn ; they 
read its moods like a book ; and, when the 
danger-mark is reached, all the gold of Croesus 
will not tempt them to try the watery pass. 

As a medium for covering distance the 
Japanese rapids are not to be despised. Those 
of the Tenryu run for 90 miles through some 
of the wildest country in Central Japan. Under 
favourable conditions, with the aid of the current, 
this may be traversed in ten hours, a rate of 
travel which leaves the basha (stage-coach) far 
behind. However, not every river, in a land 
of rapid rivers, is as swift as the Tenryu. The 
4 5 -mile run down the Fujikawa and a similar 
distance on the Kumagawa (Kyushu) are both 
covered in seven to eight hours, a more normal 
rate . This, of course, takes the slow with the swift. 
While at times the boat, in pace and motion, 
seems indeed to have taken to itself wings, at 
others a certain amount of pole -work has to 
be put in. Still, on the whole, this downward 
journey — for the crew, at any rate — is a case of 
facilis descensus Averni. To return is another 
tale — which the traveller does not hear, but is 
expected to pay for. Hie labor hie opus est. 
A trip down the Tenryii means, in the end, a fort- 
night's work for four men. Five pounds — the 
usual charge for a private boat — does not, when 
thus distributed, seem' an excessive fee. 

Are Japanese rivers beautiful ? From the 

87 



Japan's Inheritance 

scenic point of view, as we have seen, they 
suffer many things from flood-plains of their 
own making, through which they pass, with a 
" moaning," out to sea. Rarely do we find a 
deep hill -girt estuary like that, for instance, of 
the English Dart. True, the placid waters of 
the Yuragawa of Tango Province, in the West, 
are attended to the last by green hills 2,000 
feet high. But this is one of the exceptions 
that prove the rule. Rather does the Japanese 
river resemble, in its passing, the British Yare 
or Humber. Where highlands adjoin the sea 
— in the Izu Peninsula, the North-eastern Hondo 
coast, and, here and there, in Western Japan — 
we find grand bays and fiord-like inlets ; but, 
then, the mountains are so near, so all -pervading, 
as to prevent the development of streams beyond 
the torrent stage. 

With the middle and upper courses of Japanese 
rivers it is another story. Forest and stream 
are close allies in Japan. When mountain peaks 
are timbered to their summits, what can we 
expect of the water-loaded valleys ? For the 
quiet pastoral beauty which distinguishes so 
many English rivers we must substitute the deep 
and densely wooded ravine, whose sides can 
barely hold a road, where the " cry " of the 
river mingles not with the lowing of kine or 
the song of the reaper, but with the primeval 
noises of the forest. 

88 



Lake and Stream 

Through the interior maze of mountains the 
Japanese rivers have made their way in innumer- 
able boldly chiselled valleys, where fantastic rock- 
forms rise out of magnificent woods which twice 
each year are a blaze of colour. Nothing could 
be finer in its way than the valley of the Azusa 
where it runs between the granite precipices of 
the Hida range and a densely wooded 8,ooo-feet 
range on the other ; nothing could be more 
pleasing than the romantic land-forms about Ao, 
the Japanese Watersmeet. For soft beauty the 
valley of the Watarase-gawa, and, for savage 
grandeur, those of the Kurobe (" Dark River "), 
in Hida, and the Hayakawa tributary of the 
Fujikawa, will bear comparison with their 
counterparts of any country. 

Some wiseacre once set about enumerating 
the waterfalls of Japan. Beginning with 
the Nikko district — a region, by the way, not 
easy to define — he assessed the number in 
that area at two hundred. When he had 
passed on another (wiser than he) came 
upon the scene, and on a similar mission. 
His computation was twenty. It is, of course, 
a matter of terms and of what amount of water 
falling constitutes a waterfall. Pending the 
settlement of this knotty point, it may be said 
that their name is legion. One might just as 
well set about numbering the sands by the sea- 
shore. 

89 



Japan's Inheritance 



It is almost as bad when one comes to con- 
sider their height. The Ichi-no-taki, at Nachi, 
is popularly reckoned the loftiest in Japan ; it 
exceeds the famous Kegon Cascade by a score 
of feet. However, that of Kamba, in Western 
Japan, is 450 feet. On the other hand, the 
'Shlro-mlzu (White Water) of Hakusan and an 
equally slim cascade in the Taketani^ (Bamboo 
Valley) of Yarigatake descend through four times 
that height. But are these waterfalls? It is 
surprising that the fanciful name of " thread " 
has not been given them by the Japanese, for 
threads they certainly are during most of the 
year. The idea is reserved for the more acces- 
sible Shira-ito ("White Thread") Kails, at the 
western base of Fuji. Over the dark and riddled 
edge of one of that volcano's lava-flows the 
stream — an affluent of the Fujikawa — spreads 
itself in a myriad filaments of spray across a 
front of 500 feet. Popular fancy has dis- 
tinguished the largest as father, the next as 
mother, the rest their numerous progeny. Near 
by, as if in protest, another torrent drops in 
a body into a cleft 100 feet deep and half as 
wide. By this Otodome Cascade there hangs a 
tale. Two brothers of bygone days set out to 
take vengeance on the murderer of their sire. 
In their search they came the one to the top, 

^ Taki^ "bamboo," also "peak," must be distinguished 
from taki^ waterfall. 

90 



Lake and Stream 

the other to the foot of the fall, which, respect- 
ing their pious search, ceased its roaring to 
enable them to hold converse. Wherefore to 
this day men call it the "noise-stopping" 
waterfall . ' 

The same highly prized virtue, filial piety, gives 
name and fame to the Yoro Fall, near Gifu. This 
time the element of tragedy is absent. Accord- 
ing to the story, which dates from the eighth 
century A.D., there lived in the neighbourhood 
a woodcutter, who for many weeks spent his 
modest earnings in ministering to his aged 
father's passion for strong drink. At length, 
in reward for his devotion, some kindly deity 
one day revealed to him the existence of this 
cascade, which consisted at that time of the 
purest sake. As this cascade of Filial Piety is 
about loo feet in height, and of substantial bulk, 
the old man's closing years must have been 
happy, if brief. 

i\Vhile Japanese opinion favours the Nachi Fall 
as the most beautiful, it agrees in awarding to 
the Kegon-no-taki the palm for impressiveness . 
This vision of tons of water falling from the 
lip of a broken crater without hint of impedi- 
ment 250 feet to its cavernous floor, while foam- 
mists eddy into encircling woods, has much to 
do with the ascription of " magnificence " to 
Nikko. Nor, again, can the Yuno-taki, in the 
same district, be dismissed as commonplace. 

91 



Japan's Inheritance 



•Here the surplus waters of Lake Yumoto rush 
over the smooth surface of an ancient lava 
stream — now inclined at 60° and with a vertical 
height of 200 feet — a more fearsome water- 
slide than ever John Ridd climbed to see his 
Lorna. 

But of the normal sort, the Kirifuri (" Mist- 
falling ") Cascade, also in the Nikko district, 
is as fine as any — provided you rest not at the 
tea-house at the top of the ravine, but follow 
the steep rock -path to its foot. A common trick 
of the popular fancy is to label the greater and 
lesser divisions of a fall " male " and " female " 
respectively — as, for example, those of the 
Nunobiki-no-taki, near Kobe, where the waters 
glide, rather than fall, over two granite rock- 
faces, 80 and 50 feet in height. Here the 
upper cascade is the "male." 

So intent are Japanese rivers on getting to 
the sea that they rarely condescend to dally by 
the way in lakes and meres. Moreover, the 
larger streams are wont to make short work of 
any obstructions that essay to block their 
course — witness the gorge the Yoshinogawa has 
made through the backbone range of Shikoku. 
As a consequence, nearly all Japan's lakes lie 
athwart the smaller streams. Even of these the 
majority are either craters or lakes of subsidence. 
Where water has not directly succeeded to the 
heritage of fire, it has occupied depressions 

92 



Lake and Stream 

caused by the evisceration of materials from 
beneath the surface— the work of dead or dying 
cones near by. According to tradition, Japan's 
largest lake, Biwa, five times the size of Winder- 
mere, owes its existence to a mighty earthquake, 
and is even connected in some mysterious way 
with the making of Euji ; but the probabilities 
are that its formation is due to simpler and less 
sensational causes. 

After Lake Biwa, with " eight famous views " 
of peaceful beauty, Japan's three largest lakes 
show a curious identity of shape, size, and origin. 
Each of them forms roughly a circle lo miles 
in diameter, and each may be called a by-product 
of volcanic force. The soft beauty of Toya-kd, 
with its delightful " sugar-loaf " islands, is 
merely emphasized by the towering Usu-dake, 
which, with a row of belching secondary cones, 
stands between it and the sea. One has only 
to remember that Inawashiro laves the foot of 
Bandaisan to guess how it came into existence. 
Viewed from the flank of that still trembling 
mountain, the wide blue lake presents so fair 
a scene that it is hard to believe that forces so 
terrible lurk about its shores. As for Towada, 
in the far North, no one has ever dreamed of 
disputing its charms, though they be of the 
" soft " order. Not very long ago this lake was 
Ashless ; now it swarms with masu, the Japanese 
salmon. The priest who tends its shrine makes 

93 i 



Japan's Inheritance 

his living in a somewhat precarious way. It is 
the custom of visiting pilgrims to fling their con- 
tributions of sen (coppers) into the lake. At 
the end of the season these are gathered by a 
diver, who divides the proceeds with the priest. 
Obviously the incumbent should learn to dive. 
Two of Dai Nippon's finest mountain streams 
drain lakes renowned for their beauty. The 
Daiyagawa was but young when, by filling a 
lateral crater not far below the rugged sum- 
mit of Shiranesan, it taade that loveliest of little 
lakes — the pine -and -maple -ringed Yumoto. A 
few miles on it flings itself by the Dragon's 
Fall into the broader basin of Chuzenji. A con- 
siderable lake this, eight miles long, and with 
the remarkable depth of 590 feet — twice that 
of Wastwater, deepest of English lakes. To its 
leafy banks, under the shadow of the graceful 
Nantaisan, the corps diplomatique escapes from 
Tokyo's summer heat. Here, at any rate — being 
4,000 feet above sea -level — its members find 
coolness — and (tell it not in Gath) a few 
mosquitoes. Worse than these, however, are 
the floods, which have a trick of coming when 
oflicialdom would make holiday. Not only do 
they threaten the summer-houses with a horrid 
fate, but work havoc on the zigzag road which, 
winding painfully up the wooded heights near 
the Kegon Cataract, forms the sole line of com- 
munication with the outside world. 

94 





CLIFF SCENERY, EXOSHIMA, SOUTH END. 



YUMOTO SPA, NIKKO. 





KEGON FALL, NIKKO. 
The Daiyagatc-a plunges into an ancient crater. 



LAKE YUMOTO AND SHIRANESAN. 

The lake stands 5,000 feet above sea-level ; the 
volcano rises nearly 4,000 feet higher. 



To face p. 94. 



Lake and Stream 

The Lake of Hakone occupies the lowest part 
of what was once a huge crater, on the eastern 
rim of which the present Hakone range was 
afterwards built up. A line of heights — prob- 
ably the remnants of the opposite rim — inter- 
venes between this basin and the plain where 
Fuji rises in isolated majesty. This separating 
wall, however, being of no great height, does 
not preclude the Ashi-no-Umi (" Sea of 
Reeds ") from' sharing the reflected glory of 
the great volcano — though not, of course, to an 
equal extent with the four lakes that lie along 
the actual base of the mountain on the northern 
side. More people, I fancy, go to see the 
Fajl-no-Kcigaml — the reflected image of Fuji in 
the " Sea of Reeds " — than to see the lake itself ; 
but in truth the mirror has a beauty of its own. 
As for the four lakes at Fuji's base, they have 
been the subject of some speculation. To begin 
with, they are all at the same level — some 3,000 
feet above the sea. Probably, therefore, they 
once formed one long narrow lake, extending 
along a 1 2 -mile curve. But they rise and fall 
together ; therefore they are still connected ! 
Fuji's descending rock-streams indeed divided 
them, but not so effectively as to prevent some 
very real communication underground. 

In point of charm, however, no room for doubt 
remains. They gain in beauty as they go west, 
to reach, in Shoji, a little world of grace, 

95 



Japan's Inheritance 

in Motosu, something very like perfection. 
Imagine Derwentwater's " concentrated loveli- 
ness " dominated by a 12,000-foot cone of Fuji's 
finished beauty instead of by Skiddaw (shade 
of Wordsworth, forgive me ! ), and you have 
Motosu. -What need of further argument? 



96 



CHAPTER VI 
THE JAPANESE HIGHLANDS 

"Jagged peaks" — The elements of sublimity — Eroded 
volcanoes — Effects of contrast — Old rocks and new — 
The great upheaval — A grand view — In the wilds — 
Queer bridges — The toge of Japan — A remarkable cascade 
— Lakes of volcanic make — Rugged coast scenery — 
Dammed rivers — A sample of the sublime 

A REVEREND interpreter of things Japanese, 
surveying the " jagged peaks " of the mountain 
ranges, attributes them to volcanic action, i 
Another authority 2 ascribes the " soft con- 
tours " to the same cause. Truth and error 
contend in both these statements. Much of 
Japan's ruggedness is quite unconnected with 
vulcanological processes ; and the same may be 
said of the soft contours. Still, when Japanese 
scenery has so often been damned with the faint 
praise of littleness, it is something to have estab- 
lished the fact that there are mountain ranges 
with " jagf'^d peaks." 

^ Peery, in The Gist of ^apan^ p. 11. 
2 Brinkley, Encydopcedia Britannica. 

97 G 



Japan's Inheritance 

The sense of sublimity, as Ruskin points out, 
depends more upon the form and relation of 
objects to one another than upon their actual 
magnitude. Man)^ an impressive landscape may- 
be found amid Britain's 3,000-foot mountains. 
Were the Japanese highlands of like modest 
dimensions they need not, therefore, be desti- 
tute of grandeur. The average height of the 
principal sumtnits of the Northern Hondo anti- 
cline is, however, 6,000 to 7,000 feet ; of the 
Kuwanto (Nikko) group, 7,000 to 8,000 feet ; 
of the Koshu and Hida ranges, from 9,000 to 
10,000 feet. True, " eternal snows," in the usual 
sense, do not drape the mountain -tops — the heat 
and torrential rains of summer see to that — but 
many of the remoter valleys of the interior are 
never entirely free of their winter's load. Hence 
the Japanese proverb about putting off a thing 
" till the snows of Hida melt " — equivalent of 
the Roman idea of postponement ad Grcecas 
calendas. In most districts the Vama-biraki 
(" mountain opening ") is not till the middle of 
June, and the climbing season proper does not 
begin till a month later. 

Such of Japan's peaks as can claim the Alpine 
contour are not, as a rule, of volcanic origin. 
Though often associated with lofty volcanic 
cones, they themselves consist of granite, schists, 
and other primeval rocks. Remarkably bold 
effects, arising from the difference of resisting 

98 





PEAK OF HODAKAYAMA, JAPANESE ALPS. 
From the summit of the Tokugo Pass (7,000 feci). 



KAMIKOCHI VALLEY AND THE AZUSAGAWA. 

A beautiful valley, 5,000 feet above sea-level, bettveen 
tico ranges of the Alps. 




ONTAKE'S CRATERED ridge (10,600 feet) : JAPANESE ALPS, 



To face p. gS. 



The Japanese Highlands 

power in the component materials, are never- 
theless furnished by certain of the old volcanic 
mountains. In some instances the upper part 
of the cone has been steepened and the crater - 
summit denuded into a sharp peak. In others 
the softer materials forming the body of the cone 
have been swept away, leaving a framework of 
sharp and pinnacled ridges — the upper edges of 
lava dykes — radiating, sometimes with astonish- 
ing regularity, from the axis of the mountain. 
The so-called " cathedral rocks " of Myogisan, 
in Central Japan, are a case in point, where an 
ancient volcano, 5,000 feet high, has been worn 
into a rock-ribbed skeleton. On more solid lines, 
the eight-peaked Yatsugatake and the grand 
cratered ridge of Ontake afford striking illus- 
trations of the effect of erosion upon mountains 
of volcanic build. 

There is a lake in Yezo, surrounded by moun- 
tains rising precipitously to a height of 3,000 
feet, whose deep-hued waters give weird glimpses 
of submerged crags and pinnacles — broken 
remnants of the vast vent to which these 
encircling heights, no less than the lake itself, 
owe their existence. Near the base of an 
ancient cone in Central Hondo one may 
emerge from the cool depths of a virgin 
forest upon the piled-up rocks, the wild confusion 
of a lava stream, by which that forest has been 
cut in twain. In another region half a dozen 

99 



Japan's Inheritance 

cinder -spitting cones have reared themselves 
along the margin of a lake of exquisite beauty, 
over whose placid water they pour a torrent of 
noxious ash-laden fumes. Such scenes as these 
are more than grand. From them we learn that 
Japan can show the beauty of the sun, as well 
as that other beauty of the moon — and show 
them side by side. Hers not alone the loveliness 
of tree-clad mountains, of rivers gliding by moss- 
grown banks, of cascades shimmering out of 
depths of foliage, and of heaven -reflecting lakes. 
Hers, too, the weird sublimity of the hill 

"whose grisly top 
Belched fire and rolling smoke," 

of mountains that are ashes, of lakes that are 
caldrons, of torrents that are rocks — whose fiery 
progress (as Coleridge would say) " a mighty 
voice " had in a moment stopped. 

The mountain system of Japan consists of two 
roughly parallel foldings in the earth's crust, 
from which the upper and later layers have been 
removed, leaving the oldest rocks exposed* The 
inner of these two anticlines — the nearer to the 
continent — consists mainly of granite, and is con- 
tinuous throughout the length of the main island, 
of which it forms the backbone. In the outer 
of the ridges metamorphic schists predominate. 
After traversing Kyushu, it forms the main axis 

I GO 



The Japanese Highlands 

of Shikoku, and reappears in the Kii Peninsula. 
North of Tokyo Bay, and, again, north of Kink- 
wazan, it forms a coast range parallel with, and 
close to, the sea. Of the two main upfolds, 
the outer or schistose has a slightly inferior 
elevation, but yields nothing to the backbone 
range in dignity of outline. The sierras of 
Shikoku, snow-capped in winter, afford an excel- 
lent foil to the soft beauty of the Inland Sea, 
and strongly resemble the bare, sharp ridges 
of Shantung and Eastern Korea, to which, no 
doubt, they are geologically akin. Except for a 
few sections of its length in Western Japan, the 
whole backbone range is associated with volcanic 
cones, and its structure, especially in Northern 
Japan, is often entirely concealed by their accu- 
mulated rocks. The seaward schist range, on 
the other hand, is comparatively free from 
volcanic formations. 

In the central and broadest part of Hondo 
these main ranges, towards the close of the 
Mesozoic era, suffered rude disturbance and 
interruption. Attacked from the south-east by 
lateral thrusts, both were forced sharply back 
towards the north. At the same time they were 
subjected to violent upheaval, resulting in an 
increase of elevation to the extent, in all prob- 
ability, of not less than 5,000 feet. Under this 
twofold strain the Japanese island -arc gave way. 
The result was a vast fracture known to geolo- 

lOI 



Japan's Inheritance 



gists as the Great Transverse Fault. A well- 
marked depression, known as the Fossa Magna, 
now indicates the course of this fault, which 
extends from the Pacific coast at the western 
base of Fuji, by way of Lake Suwa, to the 
Himegawa Valley, on the Japan Sea. The de- 
flected schist ridge became the Aka-ishi (" red 
stone ") meridional range, with the Komagatake 
of Koshu ( 10,300 feet) for its highest peak. The 
deflected granite ridge became the Hida-Etchu 
meridional range, with Yarigatake (Spear Peak), 
Hodakayama, and Orengeyama — all over 10,000 
feet — as its culminating points. These two 
massifs, so far exceeding in height and rugged 
grandeur any other mountains in Japan, have 
come to be known collectively as " the Japanese 
Alps." Though without glaciers and on a some- 
what smaller scale, Weston puts them above the 
Alps of Switzerland in " the pictures queness of 
their valleys and in the magnificence of the dark 
and silent forests that clothe their m,iassive 
flanks." 

On either side of this comparatively recent 
fissure the mightiest volcanoes in Japan have 
risen. Those occupying isolated positions — such 
as Fujiyama and the eight-peaked Yatsugatake 
— were probably formed after the opening of 
the fissure. Those associated with the Hida 
granitic range are more ancient. Lateral 
pressure threw these ridges into transverse 

102 



The Japanese Highlands 

folds, and in the resulting synclinal hollows the 
volcanoes built themselves up. This juxtapo- 




GntiTM-TS 3000 iff. <M\i 6000 it. 
"\%ss». rtaiJTJ* H Tow^^ffif Pass. 

sition, on a commanding scale, of mountains of 
upheaval and mountains of accumulation gives 

103 



Japan's Inheritance 



rise to a type of scenery of which Nikko with 
all its diversity gives no more than a hint. 

The intersection of the Great Transverse Fault 
with the main watershed of Hondo is marked 
by the Shiojiri Pass, with the relatively low 
elevation of 3,160 feet. From this point the 
serrated ridges of Hida, less than 30 miles 
distant, show finely against the western sky over 
the wooded crest of an intervening range of 
7,000 to 8,000 feet. This, therefore, has first 
to be crossed. A basha takes the traveller to 
its foot, but thenceforward neither vehicle nor 
pack-horse avails. From bank to bank of a 
brawling torrent the rough track winds, ascend- 
ing between magnificently timbered slopes of 
increasing height and steepness. At length, 
after a long morning's climb, the gorge seems to 
open to the sky : a last stiff pull by zigzag of 
1,000 feet and the crest of the toge (pass) is won. 
Three thousand feet below the silvery thread of 
the Azusagawa winds through a splendidly 
wooded ravine away to the south. From its 
farther bank, out of a heavy fringe of pines, 
the granite precipices of Hodakayama rise full 
5,000 feet, to end in a sharp pinnacled peak, 
recalling the familiar outlines of the Aiguille du 
Dru of Chamounix. Northwards the equally im- 
pressive " Spear Peak," Yarigatake, fills the head 
of the gorge. To the south rises the seared and 
rounded form of an old volcano which men had 

104 



The Japanese Highlands 

long considered dead. Yakegatake (" Burning 
Mountain ") is its name, and at times it fills 
this gorgeous glen with sound and fury. Dense 
forests drape it up to 7,000 feet ; for 1,000 
more it rears its bald, ash-strewn head above 
a fringe of blasted pines. At its foot, near 
the murmuring river's side, may be discerned 
a faint yellow speck. It is a hut built of 
cryptomeria logs — the only habitation of any kind 
in the valley. It is, however, more than an 
inn ; it is an onsen (hot spring) . There, after 
a descent scarcely less arduous than the climb, 
the traveller will find not only rest and refresh- 
ment, but may soak to his content in the soothing 
waters which well up from' the heart of the old 
volcano . 

On the farther — i.e., the north-western — side 
of this main ridge scenery of the most sombre 
type is furnished by the gorge of the Kurobe. 
The enclosing walls are on the one hand the 
'Hida range proper, on the other the volcanic 
range of Tateyama. Between the two the " Dark 
River " roars in a ravine, the sides of which are 
so precipitous that, until it debouches on the 
strip of plain adjoining the sea, the stream can 
only be crossed in two places. 

While the southern or Akaishi division of the 
Alps consists mainly of schists, eruptive rocks 
are not unknown. Witness the extraordinary 
obelisks of granite, 50 to 60 feet high, which 

105 



Japan's Inheritance 



form the sumUiits of Hoozan (Phoenix Mountain) 
and of the outlying Kinpuzan. These mouXi- 
tains yield nothing in magnificence to those of 
Hida. From the west the approach is by the 
upper valley of the Tenryugawa ; from the east 
by the Hayakawa tributary of the Fujikawa. 
Buddhist temples, the houses of ko-cho (village 
headmen), and woodcutters' huts take the place 
of inns. Where the swift rivers cannot be forded 
they have to be crossed by tsuri-bashi — hang- 
ing bridges, composed of flimsy bamboo, and 
suspended from precipitous rocks by " ropes " 
of the same slender material. An even more 
primitive structure has sometimes to be used — 
the mannen-bashi, a plank affair fastened to 
projecting supports, and so obviously unsafe that 
(as the name suggests) the crossing of it seems 
to occupy an eternity. By the time Narada, 
on the Hayakawa, is reached one is literally in 
the wilds. Here, in the cold weather, the 
inhabitants clothe themselves in skins ; they have 
all the same surnames, owing to intermarriage, 
and worship a wondrous reed, the leaves of which 
grow on only one side of the stem. There is 
even a hamlet where women rule the house- 
holds — which, for Japan, is saying a great 
deal. 

From the scenic point of view, the toge of 
Central Hondo are a revelation. Travellers who, 
after " doing " the beaten tracks, assert that there 

io6 



The Japanese Highlands 

are " not many wide views in Japan " ' should 
climb a few of these mountain gateways. Such 
closer acquaintance with the interior would serve 
also to dispose of the generally accepted belief 
that Japan is a land of " lofty summits separated 
by low passes." The theory is that the latter 
rest on the foundation rocks of the original 
uplands, on which the peaks " have been piled 
by volcanic action." 2 The corollary of this 
proposition would be that all the mountain peaks 
are volcanic — which, of course, they are not. 
One of the Central Hondo passes — Shiojiri — is 
certainly low ; but this is simply due to the 
fact that it lies in the track of the Fossa Magna. 
Once upon a time it was, without a doubt, several 
thousand feet higher than it is now. This, how- 
ever, is one of the exceptions which prove the 
rule. The principal pass leading out of the 
Nikko mountains westward is the Konsei-toge, 
so named after the god whose shrine marks the 
summit. Its elevation is 6,000 feet, as compared 
with 8,000 feet of the range over which it leads. 
The famous Ten-Province Pass, over the broad 
ridge which connects the Hakone mountains with 
the highlands of Izu, is almost as high as the 
mountains themselves. The Usui-toge — magni- 
ficent in the days when it was crossed in a kago 
instead of a cog-rail train — is only some 1,500 

^ Cf. Letters from the Far East (Sir C. Eliot), p. 131. 
2 Encyclopaedia Britannica, " Japan," vol. xv. 

107 



Japan's Inheritance 

feet below the peak from which it is named. 
North of this the grand Shibu-toge reaches 
7,000 feet, or only a few feet below the peak 
on its north side, while the volcano of Shirane- 
san, to the south, is of the same height as the 
pass. Several of the Hida mountain passes, 
where granite peaks alternate with volcanoes, 
exceed 7,000 feet. In the same region we find 
the Harinoki-toge (Alder-tree Pass), first 
crossed by Sir E. Satow in '^7. This is 
the loftiest of Japan's passes, with a height of 
8,250 feet. Since the opening of the Western 
railway this route has been neglected. Land- 
slides and fallen rocks have played havoc with 
the path, which, to all save skilled and active 
mountaineers, is dangerous, if not impassable. 

In the heart of the Kuwanto (Nikko) moun- 
tains is a scene with an impressiveness all its 
own. The difference in level between Lake 
Chuzenji and the village of Nikko is nearly 
2,000 feet, over a distance, as the crow flies, 
of only six miles. By far the greater part of 
this fall occurs immediately on leaving the lake, 
so that the road from Nikko has to be carried 
up an almost precipitous but densely wooded 
slope in a series of zigzags, which suffer severely 
after heavy rain. Down this precipitous scarp 
the Daiyagawa, with the outflow of two con- 
siderable lakes behind it, flings itself in one 
sheer fall, followed by a series of rapids and 

108 



The Japanese Highlands 

cascades. It is difficult to realize, as one stands 
on the fenced edge of the precipice opposite, 
solicited by a nesati from the adjoining tea-house 
to participate of the inevitable green tea, that 
one is looking into an ancient crater over 
whose further lip the river incontinently leaps. 
The crater is parasitic to the volcano Nantaisan, 
on whose flank it lies. Apparently the forma- 
tion of the cone, by blocking the valley of the 
Daiyagawa, led to the formation of the lake. 
The remarkable depth of the lake at its lower 
end confirms this view. Soon there came a time 
when, by its own rising or through subsidence 
of the cone, the water reached the summit-level. 
Pouring perhaps into a vent not quite extinct, it 
produced an explosion which breached the crater 
and made a new outlet for the pent-up waters. 
The level strip of woodland between the lake 
and the waterfall has since been formed by lava 
and debris flows from Nantaisan itself. 

The perpendicular drop of the cascade is 
250 feet. Its full grandeur — and after the 
summer rains the volume is considerable — can 
only be appreciated by descending to a point 
almost on a level with the basaltic basin which 
receives it. The path is steep and tortuous ; 
and a notice peremptorily forbids " old persons, 
young persons, and persons who have had too 
much sake " to descend. Of late years the police 

have been compelled to pay more attention to 

109 



Japan's Inheritance 

the other end of the chasm, which seems to 
have come into favour (especially among students 
from Tokyo) as a place of suicide. 

Sublimity is the keynote of the volcanic 
landscape. Even when Nature has veiled with 
decent green the desolation wrought by subter- 
ranean force, the resulting scene retains the 
stamp of its origin. Such a view, for example, 
as that of Lake Onuma from the south contains 
more than meets the eye . The lake is not deep ; 
many low inlets dot its surface and dainty copses 
line its shores. But what is more remarkable, 
stumps of trees project in places above its placid 
surface, and there are many others just below, 
which time has not yet succeeded in sweeping 
away. The lake, in short, is new ; and there, 
at its northern end, sweeping skywards in magni- 
ficent curves, culminating on the western side in 
a spearlike pinnacle, 600 feet high, is the moun- 
tain that made it. Similarly, there is something 
more than beauty in the vision that greets the 
traveller who has struggled up the densely 
wooded flank of Nishi-Kirishima, in the extreme 
south of the Empire. One does not expect to 
find lakes perched on mountain-tops 5,000 feet 
above the sea, but here is a still, deep expanse 
of blue water, three-quarters of a mile in width, 
and circular — a mirror framed, as it were, in 
deep and wooded cliffs, whose columnar 
structure, topping the fringe of pines, tells 
the tale of its origin. 

no 




TOYA-KO AND THE NEW CONES OF USUDAKE. 

Six craters were opened, in the eruption of 1190, along the margin 
0/ the lake. 




fhm*!^ 



SOLFATARAS ON AZUMAYAMA, NORTHERN JAPAN. 

Eighty sulphur-diggers were here overwhelmed, in 1900, by a sudden 
eruption of the crater above. 





FUJI FROM THE SOUTH-WEST. 

Showing the "hump," cr lateral crater, of Hoeizan, formed in 1707. The lower course of the 
Fujikawa occupies the middle distance. 

To face p. no. 



The Japanese Highlands 

Thanks to the nearness of volcanic highlands, 
at least four stretches of the Japanese seaboard 
combine grandeur with sublimity. The coast 
about Toyama Bay, in the west, strongly recalls 
that of North Devon from Lynton to Heddon's 
Mouth. With greater luxuriance, it is wilder 
and much less accessible — no considerate local 
authority has hewn a cliff-path midway along 
the heights 1 The Oya-shirazu promontory, its 
most striking feature, forms a fitting finale to 
the great Hida range, which here descends to 
the sea . Towering granite precipices, rising from 
densely wooded hills, make so awe-inspiring a 
scene that (as its name implies) remembrance 
even of wife and children is, in vision of it, 
impossible. In the background the mighty 
io,ooo-feet cone of Tateyama, with "hells" 
about its base, dominates the land for miles 
around . 

On the Pacific side two stretches of coast claim 
distinction as " the Riviera of Japan." Of these, 
the eastern septum of the Izu highla,nd, in the 
neighbourhood of Atami, is the bolder and more 
rugged. South of that sequestered spot, in 
whose sheltered chines the orange and the myrtle 
grow, stern cliffs of andesite, i,ooo feet high, 
now red, now black, confront a sea as wild 
and stormy as that which breaks upon the 
Bolerium of Old England. The other Riviera, 
in north-east Kyushu, fringes the more peaceful 

III 



Japan's Inheritance 

waters of the Inland Sea. Amid greener tones 
and softer lines the Bungo Fuji rises to give 
the volcanic touch. 

Taken all round, the eastern coast of Hondo, 
north of Sendai Bay, is unsurpassed for grandeur. 
The longitudinal Kitakami range, a schist upfold 
5,000 to 6,000 feet high, sends numerous spurs 
transversely to the coast. In the fiord-like open- 
ings thus created extensive granite intrusions and 
lava-flows have been laid bare. Jagged head- 
lands thus alternate with coves and creeks framed 
in magnificent cliffs. For fully 100 miles this 
iron-bound coast fronts on the Tuscarora Deep, 
between which and the Japanese islands a nexus 
of submarine volcanoes lies. Sudden and dis- 
astrous " earthquake waves " from time to time 
sweep up the fiords and reduce to driftwood 
the little ports whic^h nestle there. The great 
waves of 1896 was responsible for the loss of 
thirty thousand lives. 

There is a stream of whose " soft perennial 
flow " the late Emperor was wont to sing, 
as symbolizing the unbroken succession of the 
Imperial line.i As a rule, it is not safe in Japan 
to write of brooks that "go on for ever." 
Streams, sometimes of substantial dignity, have 
been rudely turned aside, or stopped in their 

^ The Isuzu, which flows by the Imperial shrines of Ise, 
and which has never, in the hottest summer, been known 
to run dry. 

112 



The Japanese Highlands 

course and transformed, in a twinkling, into 
placid lakes. Nor are these things confined to 
the geological past. In the awe-inspiring 
prospect visible from the shattered summit 
of Bandaisan, when the spectator can tear 
himself from the fascination of the fearsome 
spectacle immediately beneath him, he will not 
fail to notice scores of tarns in the folds of the 
ruined valley — great and small gleaming together 
in the light of the declining sun. These are 
Japan's youngest lakes, made by the great 
eruption of 1888. The largest of them, which 
seems to have been born with a wonderfully 
developed coastline, measures 8 miles by 2. But 
admirable beyond words is the persistence of 
that river 1 Nothing daunted by the immensity 
of the barrier which had been flung across its 
path, it immediately addressed itself to the task 
of carving its way through the obstructing wilder- 
ness. And with such success, that its new bed 
now lies, in places, 200 feet below the surface 
of the devastated area. 



113 H 



CHAPTER VII 

FUJI'S LIFE AND LORE 

A matter of curves — and of similitudes — Legendary origins 
of Fuji — The mountain's miraculous properties — The 
story of Jofuku — Ceremonial for climbers — Fuji's 
foundations — A self-made mountain — Past history — The 
wound of 1707 — An ascent of Fuji — Snow and lava — 
The crater — Rest-hut No. 10 — Sunrise from the summit 

Lafcadio Hearn once likened the form of Fuji 
to that of a lotus -bud, and the simile has often 
been quoted with approval. Now the curves 
of a lotus -bud are anticlinal, or convex, and to 
assert the same of a volcano so normal and 
unmarred as Fuji is to fly in the face of theory 
as well as fact. If the slopes of the great cone 
really resembled those of a lotus -bud, they would 
be steeper towards the bottom than towards the 
top. As every one who has climbed the moun- 
tain knows to his cost, the reverse is the case. 
The authority who depicted the curve of Fuji- 
yama as that of " an inverted catenary " — also 
a convex curve — cannot even plead the excuse 
that he was led astray by a pretty conceit. The 

114 



Fuji's Life and Lore 

intentions of these appraisers are good. Like 
Balaam they set out to bless, but the results of 
their efforts are not happy. Kor they rob Euji 
of that glorious shapeliness of youth which is 
the secret of its beauty, and give it, instead, the 
semblance of broken, denuded age. The most 
beautiful thing about the most beautiful moun- 
tain in the world is its form. And that is just 
what the form of a young, well-developed volcano 
should be ; it is the perfection of normality. 

Long before Lafcadio Hearn sought to wrap 
his adopted land in the glamour of his wizardry 
the lotus had been enlisted to aid the popular 
conception of Fuji's form. A twelfth -century 
writer likens the eight peaks of its summit to 
the eight petals of the lotus -flower, and remarks 
that from whatever direction the mountain is 
viewed, three of these peaks appear. More 
homely parallels are nowadays the rule. Thus 
the sacred mountain is frequently likened to a 
heap of rice ; or, again, to an inverted fan . 
Erom the structural point of view there is much 
to commend the first. Euji is a heap, and were 
its component parts so smooth and even in tex- 
ture as grains of rice, it might to this day be as 
" squat " as a heap of the favourite Japanese 
cereal, as flat as Mauna Loa itself. However, 
there is quite enough of massive framework 
within those graceful lines to support the steep 
acclivities of the summit. Professor Milne esti- 

"5 



Japan's Inheritance 

mates the strength of the cone as equal to that 
of a pile of rubble and greater than that of solid 
masonry. Certainly, the fact that for many hun- 
dreds of years it has successfully resisted all 
tendencies to subsidence speaks volumes in its 
favour. The inverted fan simile of course ignores 
the glorious synclinal curves, but, in its justifica- 
tion, the fact may be admitted that from many 
points of view the sides of the cone for some 
distance downwards from the summit make out- 
lines that are almost, if not perfectly, straight. 
Perhaps the simplest of all similes was that of the 
prehistoric wanderer from Korea, who, when first 
the vision of the mountain burst upon him — it 
was then, tradition says, new born — hailed it as 
" heaven." 

Legend has been busy with the origin of 
Fujisan. According to one of the old records, 
the mountain rose steaming out of the sea. 
According to others it descended from the sky, 
a gift of the gods to their favoured land. At the 
time of its descent neither sun nor moon showed 
its light and the very clouds stood still. This 
legendary Fuji, too, was of heroic proportions. 
It was of all earthly mountains the most lofty, 
rising to the verge of heaven. Impenetrable 
gloom enwrapped its peak, where deities in- 
numerable disported themselves. Its height was 
" immeasurable," the circumference of its base 

extended for thousands of rl, and to accomplish 

ii6 



Fuji's Life and Lore 

the circuit thereof took "countless days." Nor 
were these colossal dimensions regarded as in- 
compatible with the oft -repeated story of its 
creation in a single night through the instru- 
mentality of a great earthquake. By this means 
a huge depression was formed in Omi Province, 
150 miles away, which in its turn was 
immediately made into a lordly lake. By some 
mysterious agency, says one writer, the earth of 
which Fuji consists was removed from the site 
of that lake (Biwa) in great baskets, the drop- 
pings from which, by the way, gaVe rise to sundry 
lesser hills resembling in form their great 
original. Tradition even assigns to this event 
a specific date — 294 B.C., according to some, 
286 B.C., according to others — in the reign of 
Emperor Korei. Later writers find fault with 
this theory on the score of the difficulties of trans- 
portation, and one of these authorities asserts that 
" the first Fuji " was a mountain 1,000 feet high, 
looking like " a pile of hardened sulphur over- 
hung with mist." 

These reports of the origin of the great volcano 
doubtless refer to some unusually violent erup- 
tion, accompanied, quite conceivably, by an earth- 
quake whose tremors extended as far as the Biwa 
region. We know that in quite recent times 
Monte Nuova, near Naples, 440 feet high, was 
the product of a single eruption. It is not, there- 
fore, beyond the range of possibility that the 

117 



Japan's Inheritance 



first Fuji was reared to twice that height in the 
course of the outburst referred to. Unfortu- 
nately for the credibility of his story, the same 
writer who gives the first Fuji a height of 
I, coo feet gives it a base as great as it has at the 
present day. On the other hand, if we accept 
the latter as correct, it means that three hundred 
years before the beginning of the Christian era 
the dimensions of the great volcano were sub- 
stantially the same as they are now. 

Among many miraculous properties ascribed 
to the mountain is the existence of springs on 
its surface, the waters of which maintain their 
perennial character by ascending during the night 
to the place whence they flowed by day. A 
similar property is attributed to the " sand " on 
the mountain -side, which, carried downwards in 
the daytime by the tread of pilgrims' feet, returns 
by night whence it came, thus maintaining the 
mountain's perfection of form. Of course, to 
dream of Fuji, especially at New Year, is the 
best of luck for you and yours. It is also said 
that the last vestige of the snow which collects 
on the mountain's top does not melt till the full 
moon of the ninth month, and that on the same 
night snow falls afresh. Harmonious sounds are 
said to proceed ceaselessly from the mountain — 
ministrations, of course, of the good spirits who 
possess it ; and from the " Cave of the Womb " on 
the north-eastern flank, with its " umbilical cord " 

ii8 




FUJI, FROM LAKE MOTOSU. 
The parasitic cone in the left middle distance is Maruyama ("roitud movntain"). 



To face p. Ii8. 



Fuji's Life and Lore 

(a stalactite) and rocks shaped like a woman's 
breasts, the god Asama is said to have been born. 

An ancient chronicler tells the story of the 
ingenious way in which one Jofuku of Shin 
evaded the commands of his sovereign Shoko, 
King of Korea. Ordered by that potentate to 
put to sea in search of the " Elixir of Life," the 
courtier sailed far and wide, but to no purpose. 
On his return, fearing the wrath of his king, 
he fell back upon the resources of his native 
wit. He had met, he said, the God of the Ocean, 
who, after some demur, led him to " the 
Empyrean Mountain, a solitary peak of great 
beauty." There, in a vast palace presided over 
by a dignitary of celestial men, the secret of the 
Elixir was preserved. " But," declared the 
Ocean God, " unless you bring hither young 
nobles and fair women, as also workmen skilled 
in all the arts, none may be yours." 

On hearing this, Shoko the King was glad, 

and made haste to collect the flower of his 

nobility and the fairest women in the land, 

together with his best artisans, to the number in 

all of three thousand souls. All these were sent, 

in a great fleet of ships under Jofuku's charge, 

to the land of the Empyrean Mount. They never 

came back. Their new surroundings seem to 

have appealed to them too strongly. As for their 

leader, he entered one of the caves at the foot of 

the mountain and was seen no more. 

119 



Japan's Inheritance 



Thus romantically wrapped up, we have doubt- 
less the narrative of one of the several extensive 
migrations from the continent to the Eastern 
Islands which took place in early days. That 
these old traditions persist to modern times is 
suggested by the rules till recently enforced on 
those who ascended the mountain. Intending 
worshippers at the shrine which, ever since its 
foundation by the Emperor Korei in 808 A.D., 
has been maintained at its summit, are expected 
to undergo purification for one hundred days, 
but this period is reduced to seven in the case of 
the men of Omi Province, where (according to 
the story) the mountain had its birth. 

A document given by the priests at this shrine 
to pilgrims successfully accomplishing the ascent 
contains the assertion that Fuji is the " source " 
of every mountain on the face of the earth, and 
that nothing in the sun or moon can compare with 
it in grandeur. Nowhere in Japanese literature, 
so far as is known, does the suggestion occur, 
which one foreign writer has conveyed in verse, 
that the creation of Fuji preceded that of the 
islands of Japan. 

Fuji is essentially a self-made mountain — a 
mountain of accumulation, the geographer would 
call it. Not a particle of that vast, cone-shaped 
heap but has been shot from the funnel which 
now forms its core. Scoriae and lava, lava and 
scoricc — so the great heap rises to its ragged, 

120 



Fuji's Life and Lore 

black -red crest. True, for ten months out of 
the twelve a mantle of snow — reduced to streaks 
in the heat of summer — covers all the upper half 
of the mountain and spreads over its desolated 
sides a veil of peace . But to the twenty thousand 
toiling pilgrims who from July to September 
trudge upwards through the yielding ash, the 
snow-beds are but a pleasant signal that half 
their work is done. Underneath and all around 
are upheaved rocks, volcanic dust and ashes, 
the outpourings of centuries. 

The pedestal of Fuji is granite. Ranges of 
eruptive rock, 3,000 to 5,000 feet high, and 
deeply overlaid with the volcano's outpourings, 
encircle it on the east, the west, and the north. 
As the valley on the last-mentioned side lies 
3,000 feet, and the village of Gotemba on the 
east side 1,500 feet, above sea-level, it is evident 
that the great volcano has built itself up on a 
slope dipping evenly southwards and seawards. 
Only on this side is the full curve of the mountain 
developed. Here the cone descends with un- 
broken regular sweep from its summit-crater to 
the sea. The distance from the crest of the 
mountain to its base on this side is i 5 miles in a 
straight line. Midway, the " angle of rest " is 
20°, and, near the summit, 35°. The average 
width of the base of the cone may be put at 
21 miles, of its apex at half a mile. If Fuji were 

truncated at a height of 2,000 feet — the height 

121 



Japan's Inheritance 

of the largest crater -ring in the world, that of 
Asosan— its dimensions of 1 6 miles by 1 4 would 
still retain for it the supremacy. Its height has 
been variously computed. The lowest estimate 
put forward is 10,712 ft. ; the highest, 14,175. 
However, the vast majority of the computations 
have ranged within a few hundred feet of 
12,000, and the Japanese Geological Survey's 
estimate of 12,395 is commonly accepted as 
correct. Some good folk with a taste for 
mnemonics make the figure 12,365 — to tally with 
the number of months and days in the year. In 
the course of time they will be right, for, like all 
volcanic cones, Fuji is subject to gradual diminu- 
tion of height as the result of subsidence. 

No summit eruption of Fujiyama has been 
recorded for at least 250 years. To this cir- 
cumstance we owe in large measure that increased 
curvature of the sides of the cone which adds 
so much to its beauty. For the last 3,000 or 
4,000 feet of its height, the lighter materials have 
for the most part been removed and the under- 
lying lava-flows and dykes laid bare. In 1707, 
however, the mountain broke out with remarkable 
violence at a point on its south-eastern flank, 
then overgrown with forest, at a height of nearly 
9,000 feet above the sea. The eruption was of 
the explosive type, without exudation of lava. 
Ashes and lapilli, which accumulated to a depth 
of 1 2 feet on the shores of Suruga Gulf and 

122 



Fuji's Life and Lore 

6 inches in the streets of Yedo, 70 miles away, 
were the chief products of the outburst. A deep 
hollow was formed, not of strictly crateral shape, 
whose outer lip, the " hump " of Hoeizan, 
destroys on that side the symmetry of the moun- 
tain. Steam still issues at times, though in in- 
significant quantities, from a point on the lip of 
the summit-crater on the east side. The heat 
thus indicated is purely local. Neither the 
summit-crater nor the outer sides of the cone 
above 10,000 feet are ever entirely clear of snow. 
Fifteen eruptions of Fuji have been recorded 
since the beginning of the Christian era. The 
closing years of the eighth century and the open- 
ing years of the ninth marked a period of great 
activity, four great outbursts taking place between 
781 and 802 A.D. In 937 another memorable 
display of energy was chronicled. Old writers 
describe the mountain as " burning from head 
to foot." Probably about this time small vents 
were opened far down the mountain side, result- 
ing in the formation of the parasitic cones, Ko- 
Fuji, " Little Fuji," and Maruyama, " round 
mountain." An eruption in 1086 is said to have 
been accompanied by severe earthquakes which 
led to the fracturing of the cone for several 
thousand feet. Then followed a long interval 
of quiescence, of 550 years' duration, broken only 
by a slight outburst in 1 3 3 1 . The last two 
eruptions took place in 1627 and 1707 respec- 

123 



Japan's Inheritance 

tively. The mountain is said to have been 
violently shaken by " earthquakes " and its cone 
fractured as recently as 1854, but on this point 
the authorities do not agree. 

Fujiyama is a standing example of the truth 
that great height is unfavourable to continuance 
of activity. The fact that the last eruption on 
record (1707) resulted in the formation of a 
parasitic cone nearly 5,000 feet below the 
summit is only further confirmation of the same 
principle. As the presence of Hoeizan on the 
flank of the great volcano may be taken as 
indicating a decline of its energy, a sumtnit erup- 
tion of Fuji may be ruled out of the sphere of 
probabilities ; but the volcano's perfection of 
form is still liable to be affected by lateral out- 
bursts or by subsidence of the upper part of 
the cone. Some still distant age may see Fuji- 
yama in form a greater Takachiho, its summit- 
crater denuded into a sharp peak, with such a 
huge lateral crater on its flank as that which now 
gives distinction to the terminal peak of the 
Kirishima range. Thanks to the strength of the 
cone and of its foundations, such a catastrophe 
as would finally destroy the beauty of its logarith- 
mic curves will be the longer delayed, but even 
a Fujiyama is not for ever proof against the 
levelling forces of Nature. 

The season for worshipping at the shrine of 
Sengen, on the rim of Fuji's crater, is strictly 

124 



Fuji's Life and Lore 

limited — mid- July to mid-September. To present 
oneself at the summit at any other time is to 
be lacking in respect towards the deity, who will 
certainly show disapproval by storms of wind 
or rain or snow. Such, at any rate, is the popular 
belief, which has not been shaken by the mis- 
fortunes which have attended such attempts. 
Mr. Weston tells how, in essaying the ascent in 
May, 1892, his party were caught in a snowstorm 
near the seventh station and there compelled to 
take refuge for three days. They were given 
up for lost, and on descending enjoyed the rare 
experience of reading their own obituary notices 
in the Japanese papers. In the autumn of 1895 
Mr. Nonaka, an intrepid meteorologist, accom- 
panied by his wife, took up his abode at the 
summit with the intention of spending the winter 
there. After three months a relief party, 
organized by friends, went to the rescue. It was 
just in time. The scientist and his wife had to 
be carried down the mountain in a state of 
collapse . 

This is not to say that winter ascents of Fuji 
are impossible. It is all a matter of luck in 
weather. Given freedom from snowstorms, there 
is no great difficulty for climbers accustomed to 
snow work. In January, 1909, a mixed party 
of foreigners and Japanese addressed themselves 
to the task. On the first attempt they were 
driven back by a blizzard, encountered at about 

125 



Japan's Inheritance 

10,000 feet. Returning to the attack a few days 
later, they were favoured with clear weather, and 
reached the summit in good time. 

" He who does not go up Fuji once is a fool," 
says a Japanese saw, " but not so big a fool as 
he who goes up twice." There is a certain 
amount of truth in the saying, but it fails to make 
due allowance for the conditions prevailing at 
the summit. Personally, I have escaped the ban 
of the first part of the proverb, but if (like many 
who have won their way to the summit) I had 
seen nothing, I should certainly have gone up 
twice. Nothing can compensate the climber for 
his pains save the view from the summit. If he 
misses that, he will indeed be dumb before the 
superior person (not addicted to the evil prac- 
tice of climbing), who asserts that " the only 
way to really see Fuji is to walk (or be carried) 
round its base." 

Having accomplished both, I shall not be 
accused of partiality when I say that, while the 
circumventing of the great volcano is a 
thoroughly delightful trip, the achievement of its 
ascent under favourable conditions will always 
rank as one of the experiences of a lifetime. 

Gotemba, the little railway town whence the 

ascent of Fuji is usually made, has an inn in 

Japanese style — the Fuji-ya — where guides, 

horses, etc., may be procured. Most travellers 

make this the stopping -place for the night and 

126 



Fuji's Life and Lore 

follow the example of the patriarchs of old by 
rising " a great while before day." Even then, 
it must not be forgotten that from Gotemba to 
Tarobo, where the horses are left and the actual 
climbing begins, is a good lo miles — only the 
last two of which can be said to be in any degree 
interesting. The course pursued in preference 
by myself and a friend was to push on overnight 
to the foot of the mountain. It is at this point 
that one begins to realize that the ascent of Fuji 
is not all beer and skittles. The horses are 
broken-down hacks, whose sole ambition is to 
walk at a pace not exceeding 4 miles an hour, 
and to stop for refreshment at every wayside 
hut. The saddles are of prehistoric date and 
quaint construction. The guide is frequently 
behind instead of in front, and, like the horse, 
is not averse to stoppages. However, a soul 
which is resolved to rise above difficulties, and 
is not possessed by a consuming desire for haste, 
would make light of these minor tribulations. 
Indeed, a fine calm evening and a full moon may 
go far towards making this stage of the journey 
something approaching to pleasant, as your horse 
crunches methodically along the gently rising 
cinder-path and finally plunges into the belt of 
forest, which on this side skirts the mountain up 
to 5,000 feet. But when it comes to the time of 
night, and, in lieu of a bed, one has to envelop 

oneself in the same unwashed futon which has 

127 



Japan's Inheritance 



warmed the bodies of countless Japanese 
pilgrims, in all probability since the last eruption 
of Fuji, and when, in the hours of darkness, one 
has to 'Wrestle with numerous diminutive and 
aggressive foes already in possession of the afore- 
said futon — well, let us draw a veil over that 
experience. Suffice it to say that, whether the 
traveller be by practice an early riser or not, it 
is with unmixed delight that he hails the first 
signs of dawn and calls aloud for mizu wherewith 
to wash and refresh himself after the conflict. 
It is at the time of sunrise and sunset that the 
best views of Fuji are usually to be obtained. 
The chances are that as the traveller emerges 
from the hut at Tarobo (the first of the ten 
stations into which the ascent is divided) he will 
be rewarded with a magnificent view of the 
stately pile he has to negotiate. The first beams 
of the sun light up the tree-tops of the forest-belt 
he has traversed, the seams of the great cone 
before him, the streaks of snow which mark its 
upper surface, and the jagged edges of the crater. 
Poor, indeed, is the soul of the man whom this 
sight does not inspire to push on without delay 
and persevere to the end. A hasty meal is taken, 
and a staff purchased for ten sen, to be duly 
stamped on reaching the summit, as unimpeach- 
able evidence of having accomplished the feat, 
the coolie straps your goods and chattels on to 

his back, and the start is made. 

128 



Fuji's Life and Lore 

The rest-huts now become a prominent feature 
of the journey. Rude structures they are, of 
stone, built into the side of the mountain at 
intervals of 700 to 800 feet. Within, crouching 
on the matting which barely covers the floor of 
boards spread loosely over the cinders, one may 
add the delicacies of rice, eggs, and Japanese 
tea to one's stock of provisions. The usefulness 
of these huts, in spite of the flea-ridden futon, 
is beyond dispute. He would be a man of super- 
human strength and endurance who could accom- 
plish the ascent without having recourse to one 
or more of them. In stress of weather they are, 
of course, indispensable. There are other huts 
besides the " ten stations," as the traveller soon 
finds out. It is rather trying to his patience 
when, as he is congratulating himself on 
approaching No. 3, he is informed by the guide 
that it is only No. 2^ or 2|. These intervening 
stations, however, disappear towards the top. 

At 8,500 feet the lava crops out in long, black 
slaggy ridges. Under their shelter lies the snow 
which forms the " streaks " distinguishable from 
afar, and which, presumably, have inspired young 
lady-poets to sing of Euji's " bridal veil." On 
passing the seventh station, at a height of about 
10,000 feet, the effects of the rarefied air begin 
to be felt. The traveller has perforce to slacken 
pace and rest more frequently. Many at this 
point have been overtaken by mountain sickness, 

129 I 



Japan's Inheritance 

and have been compelled to turn back. As a 
rule, the mists which usually envelop the waist 
of the mountain are now left behind, and the 
climber, at last " above the clouds," can look 
down upon a mighty sea of billowy, vaporous 
forms. The last 2,000 feet, apart from the 
increased difficulty of breathing, are most ex- 
hausting, and one cannot but feel sorry for 
the pilgrims if (as one enthusiastic scribe 
asseverates) they really " pray all the way up." 
The climbing, now on the cone itself, is per- 
ceptibly steeper. Ashes and lapilli give place 
to jagged blocks of lava and erupted bombs. 
Fresh waraji have constantly to be strapped on 
to the feet, on which the severe exertion over a 
rough surface begins to tell. Ere long there 
comes a steeper pull than ever, amidst and over 
confused heaps of rocks of ever-increasing size ; 
the air above and around seems to clear ; the 
guide laconically exclaims '' Ju-ban'' (No. 10), 
and the top is won. The traveller stands, gasp- 
ing but delighted, on the rim of the crater., A 
considerate priest hands him a cup of ice-cold 
water ; his staff is taken to be duly stamped, and 
he has time to survey the scene. 

And what a scene it is I A vast abyss oine-- 
third of a mile in width and 500 feet in depth, 
whose scarred and fire-rent sides sink sharply 
into a chaos of boulders red and black, 
yawns at his very feet. Here the walls of that 

130 





FUJI, FROM SHOJI LAKE. 



PILGRIM-CUMBERS ON FUJI. 




.t'%4(.- -<' 1 





THE SUMMIT-CRATER OF FUJI. 

The peak in the right distance is Kengaminc, ilie highest point of the mountain. 

To f^ce p. 130. 



Fuji's Life and Lore 

once unapproachable vent are perpendicular cliffs 
of a fierce red hue, there a snow -slope ; here a 
talus of fallen stones and cinders, there a 
precipice of " abrupt and perilous rocks." Across 
the chasm from the east, the crater-wall rises to 
its highest in the peak of Kengamine, on the 
west. Betwixt the two, from out that sealed 
gulf, not many generations since, what clouds 
of smoke, what floods of molten rock, what 
streams of living embers have not flowed? Such 
are the thoughts which instinctively inspire the 
traveller's mind as he gazes around him on the 
silent, but sacred, waste. 

It is usually possible to descend into the crater 
— by the talus slope before referred to. The 
abnormal amount of snow which still remained, 
however, prohibited the attempt. We estab- 
lished ourselves in No. lo, and after completing 
the circuit of the crater, were glad to seek shelter 
from the violent and bitterly cold wind which 
swept across the summit. At nightfall, while 
the good folk in Yokohama were sweltering with 
the thermometer at 86°, we were shivering inside 
rugs and ancient futon with the temperature 
below freezing-point and a wind that threatened 
to blow No. lo into the crater. 

The next event of which we had any distinct 
recollection was the sunrise. At 3 a.m. there 
was a general exit to view the unwonted spec- 
tacle. We saw the sun rise. We did not see it 

131 



Japan's Inheritance 



rise over the land. We saw it rise over a vast 
rampart of massed clouds which walled the 
summit in on all sides round. We might have 
been on an island in space, and yon red orb some 
distant star — some other sun than ours. The 
impression of isolation was supreme. But our 
friends the pilgrims were not thus occupied. As 
the grey battlements below us flushed re^, and 
yet more red, and finally the God of Day rose 
above them, our devout neighbours muttered 
prayers. I Soon it was all over. The band of 
watchers had seen a great sight : they had seen 
sunrise on Fuji. Every one hurried back to the 
hut — some to sleep, some to eat, some to descend. 
This last operation we undertook at 7 a.m. Of 
the various routes we chose the most direct — that 
on the east or Subashiri side — and with liberal 
resort to the glissade made short work of it. 
'Half-way down the rain came on, but we recked 
not. Horses helped us through the forest -belt 
at a respectable pace, and at noon, with a sense 
of satisfaction at the successful accomplishment 
of our journey, we were soaking in that thrice- 
blessed of Japanese institutions, a hot sulphur- 
bath. 

^ The service at sunrise includes the Rokkon Shojo (Ritual 
of the Six Senses : sight, hearing, tasting, smelhng, loving, 
feeling) and the Kuji-go Shimpo (Exorcism of the Nine 
Strokes — five horizontal, four vertical — symbolizing the 
offensive and defensive attitude of the faithful towards the 

powers of evil). 

132 



CHAPTER VIII 
CRATERS, ALIVE AND DEAD 

The old records — Volcanoes an object of veneration — 
Volcanoes and the supernatural — Activity in the past 
— Number of " independent " cones — Distribution of 
the vents — Variety of types — Uncommon formations — 
Recent activity 

The most ancient record of a volcanic eruption 
in Japan is to be found in the Hiraklki Jinga 
Engi (Record of the Hirakiki Temple in the 
Province of Satsuma, Southern Kyushu). 
According to this, the volcano of Hirakiki, 
nov^ known as Kaimondake — one of the most 
beautiful of Japan's many beautiful cones — was 
created in the reign of the Emperor Itoku in 
a single night. The modern historian is wont 
to look askance at Japanese chronology prior 
to the Christian era ; but, assuming it to have 
some basis in fact, the " Satsuma Euji," as ,,it 
is called, was " created " about 500 B.C. It 
has therefore the advantage of some two hundred 
years in age over its greater namesake in Eastern 

133 



Japan's Inheritance 

Japan, to which tradition ascribes an equally- 
sudden and miraculous birth in the year 
286 B.C. However, the geologist, who is no 
respecter of traditions, has little difficulty in 
showing that both the 3, coo-feet Fuji of Sat- 
suma and the 12,000-feet Fuji of Suruga are 
among the youngest of Japanese volcanoes, 
and that, even so, they are vastly older than the 
records make them. 

The subsequent behaviour of these and other 
volcanoes, and their effect upon the country and 
its inhabitants from the Emperor downwards, are 
set forth with greater wealth of detail in 
chronicles dating from the sixth century A.D. 
Thus, it is written of the Satsuma volcano that 
" the Hirakiki god was promoted in rank " on 
several occasions during the ninth century, when 
" thunder roared from the top of the mountain, 
flames were thrown up, and smoke filled the 
heavens " ; when " ashes fell like rain, day was 
turned into night," and farmers living near the 
mountain " lost their spirits by fright." These 
untoward incidents were noticed to take place 
" when the god was angry." Wherefore, by way 
of propitiation, governors " cleaned their bodies," 
priests " read the sacred books and presented 
offerings of nasa (cut paper) to the offended 
deity." Perhaps no more remarkable proof of 
the veneration in which volcanoes and their 
associated gods were held could be supplied than 

134 



Craters, Alive and Dead 

by the proclamation of the Emperor Tencho in 
the third month of the second year of his reign/ 
when the sacred pond on Asosan was reported 
to be drying up : — 

" The wondrous pond in the district of Aso was never 
known to change the amount of its water, even in the time 
of drought or during rainy weather. Now, however, it has 
dried up about forty jo^ without any cause. Thinking about 
my faults in the government of the country, I am greatly afraid 
and have repented. Now I hope to govern the people with 
the same kind treatment which my predecessors practised 
in olden times, and thus to escape the misfortunes of famine, 
plague, and drought. Order the priests at each Buddhist 
temple and at each of the Shinto shrines to pray for the 
happiness of the people. Show kindness to the poor, to 
widows, widowers, orphans, and all old persons. Do not 
confound the innocent with the guilty. Lay before every 
one my intentions." 

In comparatively recent times (1826) the 
temple at the base of this cone was destroyed, 
but no time was lost in rebuilding it. Four 
years later, when the mountain " continued to 
roar and shake and to blow up fire and stones, 
so that all the villages to the south had bad 
harvests," the Government frequently ordered the 
priests of Aso " to pray for quiet." 

Superstition bulks largely in these quaint 
chronicles. Many of the eruptions are asso- 
ciated with national calamities and deliverances, 

' 825 A.D. ^ 1 jo = 10 feet, approximately. 

135 



Japan's Inheritance 

invasions, deaths of Emperors, etc. As typical 
of the appeals to the supernatural which charac- 
terized in those days the Japanese treatment of 
volcanic phenomena the following extracts will 
serve : — 

"On the 26th day of the 12th month of the ist year of 
Rekinin/ about 30 snakes appeared in the miraculous pond 
on Mount Aso, and black smoke was sent up and many stones 
fell down. In the next year the Emperor Gotoba died.'' 

" In the 7th month of the 4th year of Koan,^ when the 
Mongolians came to attack us, a blue dragon appeared in 
the sea of Takashima3 and a divine wind destroyed them. 
On the day of the destruction of the Mongolian ships, the 
pond on Mount Aso roared and two warships appeared in it." 

Of the five peaks surrounding this pond, the 
most rugged and difficult of ascent is Neko- 
dake (" Cat Peak "), so called, according to the 
writer of the Aso-san-Jo reihen-ki, because 

" the king of cats lived there, and on the last day of every 
month all the cats in the district congregate there" — 

an allusion to the belief, common in Japan from 
the thirteenth to the seventeenth century, that 
the cat was an anmial of darkness, in league 
with the powers of the lower world, and capable 
of changing a corpse into a terrible demon. At 
the present day the main approach to every 
Japanese volcano is marked by a torii, or Shinto 

* Circum 1239 a.d. ' 1281 a.d. 3 Off Nagasaki, Kyushu. 

136 




VOLCANOES ARE SACRED : TEMPLE AT FOOT 
OF DAISEN, WESTERN JAPAN. 





TORII MARKING APPROACH TO ESAN VOLCANO, HOKKAIDO. 

Beyond this point, in former times, women were not alloit'ed to pass. 



To face p. 136. 



Craters, Alive and Dead 

gateway, indicating holy ground ; and, until well 
on in the Meiji era, the rule forbidding women 
to proceed beyond it was rigidly enforced. 
Travellers desirous of ascending the Bungo Fuji, 
in Kyushu, will find difficulty in obtaining native 
assistance, for the belief prevails locally that the 
ascent of the mountain provokes a tempest. 

Written records apart, there is ample evidence 
in the visible products of volcanic action that 
the islands of Japan have been in the past the 
scene of eruptive outbursts on an enormous 
scale. Such cataclysms as those which produced 
the rings of the " telescope mountain," Ganjusan, 
in Northern Japan, or the mighty caldera of 
Asosan, in the South, deserve to rank with any 
the traces of which may still be seen on the 
face of this planet. Even during the historical 
period eruptions have taken place which might 
be classed as world-events. Most notable were 
those which signalized the close of the eighteenth 
century — a time of marked volcanic activity in 
various parts of the world. Thus the eruption, 
in 1779, of Sakurajima, the island-volcano which 
rises so grandly out of the deep waters of Kago- 
shima Bay, was of such a nature that people 
could walk from the mainland to the island, a 
distance of 8 to 10 miles, on the floating pumice 
ejected from its crater. In 1783 the eruption 
of Asama, contemporaneous with that of Hecla, 
in Iceland, dealt destruction over an immense 

137 



Japan's Inheritance 



area ; and, nine years later, the blowing out of 
the east side of the wooded cone of Unzen, near 
Nagasaki, caused the death of 27,000 people. 
Still more recently the outburst on Bandaisan, 
in 1888, when one of the peaks of that mountain 
was suddenly hurled from a height of 6,000 feet 
into the valley below, will always remain one 
of the most terrible manifestations of subter- 
ranean violence. 

•What is the number of the Japanese volcanoes ? 
To answer is not easy. First, one must dis- 
tinguish between the primary or independent 
cones and the many secondary or parasitic — a 
far from simple task. Next arises the question 
whether a mountain formed of volcanic rock 
should be regarded as an independent volcano 
or not. Finally, there is the difficulty brought 
about by denudation. To what extent should 
the rounded hill, deprived of its crater, the 
" basal wreck," and the " neck " or " stump " 
be included in the list? Japanese geological 
maps show as many as 165 "independent 
volcanoes." Professor Milne, in a careful 
enumeration made in 1886, arrived at the 
figure 129. This includes some twenty un de- 
scribed and, in some cases, unnamed cones, as 
well as eight or ten islands of volcanic origin 
which have neither craters nor issuing steam ; 
while an additional nine are classified as 
" volcanic nuclei." If, on the other hand, 

138 



Craters, Alive and Dead 

one followed the principle of counting craters, 
these figures would need to be increased three- 
fold ; while, if every " neck " were included, the 
total would run into thousands. 

Nor is the task of deciding the number of 
the active volcanoes any less difficult. Is a 
volcano to be regarded as active which has no 
remaining sign of that condition but a collec- 
tion of solfataras and boiling springs at its base? 
Fujiyama has known no eruption for two hundred 
years, and there is nothing on the whole surface 
of the great cone which merits the name of a 
fumarole ; but, at times, a little steam issues 
from the outer rim of its crater. Are we, there- 
fore, to account Fuji an active volcano ? Again, 
the records of Japanese vulcanicity make us hesi- 
tate to describe any volcano as extinct. Cases 
have been known of volcanoes which had been 
silent for hundreds of years, and even of moun- 
tains whose origin was in dispute, breaking out 
suddenly and destructively. Finally, the number 
of volcanoes recognized as active is constantly 
changing. Cones which a few years ago merited 
inclusion in the active list no longer lend them- 
selves to such classification ; while others, appar- 
ently extinct, have assumed the active state. 
However, with due allowance for these difficul- 
ties, it would not be wide of the mark to say 
that the Japanese islands support about forty 
active volcanoes — including a dozen or so in the 

139 



Japan's Inheritance 



Kuriles, and regarding as such only those which 
display activity at their main, or summit, craters. 
Japan's volcanic mountains, alive and dead, 
are arranged, not in a haphazard fashion, but 
along certain well-defined " lines of weakness " 
in the earth's crust. Two of these have a 
common starting-point in the bed of the Pacific, 
a little to the north of the New Guinea coast. 
The western, passing by Celebes and the Philip- 
pines to Formosa, gives rise, in the Liu-kiu and 
Satsuma Islands, to the first of the three Japanese 
anticlinal curves, and terminates in Kyushu. The 
eastern line of weakness, following the submarine 
ridges which divide the Nares and Challenger 
Deeps from the still prof o under Tuscarora, 
encounters the second, or main, Japanese island- 
curve at its point of maximum convexity. In 
its oceanic portion this fissure is indicated by 
the Marianne, Bonin, and Shichi-to Islands — all 
highly volcanic. On reaching the mainland it 
merges with the vast fracture known as the Fossa 
Magna, or Great Transverse Fault, which strikes 
almost at right angles across Central Japan. The 
third insular curve — the Chishima ("Thousand") 
or Kurile Islands — with numerous but less ancient 
vents, serve to link up the Northern Hondo zone 
with that of Kamchatka. At three points, there- 
fore, converging " lines of weakness " impinge 
upon the main Japanese arc — (i) Southern 
Kyushu, (2) East-Central Hondo, (3) South- 

140 




Unzendake (4,800) 
* Asosan (5,200) 



Kiyishima Zone. 



Kurile Zone. 

Cha-cha-nobori (7,900) 

* Shiribeshi (6,500) 

* Tarumai (3,500) 
Noboribetsu (1,000) 

* Usudake (2,800) 



North Hondo Zone. 

* Komagatake (3,800) 

* Esan (2,000) 
Ganjusan (6,500) 

* Azumayama (6,500) 

* Bandaisan (5.800) 

* Nasuyama (6,300) 

* Shiranesan (8,800) 

(Nikko) 

* Asama (8,200) 

* Shiranesan (7,500) 

(Kusatsu) 



Fuji Zone. 

( Tateyama (9,600) 
■j * Yakegatake (8,500) 
( Ontake (10,600) 
Yatsugatake (8,500) 
Fujiyama (12,400) 
Amagisan (4,800) 

* Oshima (Miliara) (2,500) 

* Miyake-shiraa (2,700) 



Nishi Kirishima (5,600) 
Higashi Kirishima (5,200) 

(Takachiho) 
Sakurajima (3,500) 
Kaimon-dake (3,030) 



VOLCANIC ZONES, SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF PRINCIPAL VENTS. 
Active Cones O Extinct • Direction of Non-volcanic Ranges < — >■ 



Japan's Inheritance 

Central Yezo. Where these converging lines 
encounter the zones of the main arc the volcanic 
formations are on the largest scale. Witness, 
in Kyushu, Asosan, with its enormous Somna ; 
in Central Hondo, Fuji, and several other 
volcanic peaks of 10,000 feet; in Yezo, the 
imposing Shiribeshisan, and other great cones 
overlooking Volcano Bay. 

In Japan proper the volcanic cones are 
generally associated with the main mountain 
ranges. Sometimes, as in the case of the 
Hakuzan and Chokaisan zones, they have arisen 
along fissures running parallel therewith. Here 
and there, however, they have been thrown up 
along fissures opened transversely from the main 
line of weakness. In such places the volcanic 
area has been extended into zones of consider- 
able width, with groups, rather than lines, of 
cones. It is in these wider zones, especially 
where they approach the sea or any large body 
of water, that activity is still displayed. For 
in Japan, as all over the world, volcanoes are 
performing their natural function of " terrestrial 
respiration," giving back to space quantities of 
steam which, retained, would make disaster. 
Water is the immediate cause of that condition 
of a volcano, intermittent and paroxysmal, which 
we call an eruption. Water is always present 
in the magma of molten rock, and any marked 
local increase gives rise to an eruption. 

142 



Craters, Alive and Dead 

Similarly, the withdrawal of the water will 
in most cases put an end to the life of the 
volcano . Thus it comes that the still active cones 
in Yezo are those near the sea or near lakes ; that 
Bandaisan and Azumayama and Shiranesan have 
once again assumed the paroxysmal state ; and 
that the insular or coastal volcanoes of Japan, 
as a whole, show the most marked activity. 

Striking confirmation of this theory is supplied 
by the chain of events of which the eruption 
of Bandaisan forms a link. Near the southern 
base of this mountain lies the large, nearly 
circular lake of Inawashiro. Like several other 
of Japan's finest lakes, it owes its formation to 
subsidence following on the evisceration of vast 
quantities of material from beneath the surface. 
The presence of this lake was doubtless the pre- 
disposing circumstance of the outburst of 1888, 
its waters having found their way to the 
incandescent regions below the mountain, with 
the consequent accumulation of superheated 
steam in irrepressible quantities. But, as we 
have seen, the explosion of Bandaisan gave rise 
to the formation of several lakes in the valley 
between it and another volcano (Azumayama), 
also deemed extinct. That was in 1888. Five 
years later Azumayama broke out in precisely 
similar fashion on the flank retnote from that 
where the new lakes lay. We thus have what 
might be called the cycle of volcanic action. 

143 



Japan's Inheritance 

Eruptions give rise to evisceration ; evisceration 
to subsidence ; subsidence to the formation of 
lakes ; the formation of lakes to fresh eruptions, 
and so on. And the products of these processes 
are writ large on the Japanese landscape of 
to-day. 

In the matter of dimensions, the principal 
volcanic peaks on the mainland range from 6,000 
to 8,000 feet — though exception must be made 
in the case of several cones mentioned above. 
The purely insular volcanoes show a greater 
variation in height. Most of them range from 
1,500 to 3,000 feet, though several in the Kurile 
chain reach 7,000 feet. Throughout the country 
the main, or summit, craters show a remarkable 
uniformity in width. Few are less than ^ mile, 
none more than | of a mile, in their longest 
diameter. In the disposition and depth of the 
craters, however, and in the character of their 
floors, there is enough diversity to render this 
branch of the subject in itself a fascinating study. 

Vulcanologists who have concentrated their 
attention on the two most observed of volcanic 
mountains — Vesuvius and Stromboli — are wont to 
classify all volcanoes by their resemblance to 
one or other of these. The Vesuvian type of 
crater has occasional great eruptions, with ex- 
trusion of lava — sufficient to overflow in streams. 
The Stromboli type shows an incessant but purely 
explosive activity, the result of the bursting of 

144 



Craters, Alive and Dead 

a constant succession of steam bubbles ascend- 
ing through the lava-column. Among the active 
Japanese volcanoes are not a few which it would 
be difficult to refer to either class. The type- 
eruption of recent years in Japan consists of 
a huge, violent, and sudden explosion, unaccom- 
panied by lava-flow, and succeeded at once by 
a state of more or less complete repose , In some 
cases the side of an ancient and apparently 
extinct cone has been blown away, leaving a 
great gaping hollow which cannot be called a 
crater in the true sense. It is worthy of note 
that in each such case large bodies of water 
exist in the vicinity. That the accumulated steam 
which provoked the outburst had been derived 
from them is, I think, a fair inference. The 
solid products of these eruptions do not consist 
of finely divided magma, but of fragments of 
the mountain itself. Very often these lateral 
explosions result in the breaching of an ancient 
crater, the resulting debris forming a vast inclined 
plane from the surmnit to the valley below. 
Bandaisan, Azumayama, Unzen, the Komagatake 
of Yezo, and Esan all exhibit this neither 
Vesuvian nor Strombolian type of eruption. 
Then there is the geyser -like activity of Shirane- 
san, where the main crater is occupied by a 
steaming lake, J mile in diameter. Beneath its 
agitated waters lies the ancient vent from 
which a composite cone, 7,000 feet high, has 

145 K 



Japan's Inheritance 

been built up, and from' which, at irregular 
intervals, violent explosions still take place. 
How, too, shall we classify the detonatory 
explosions of Asama, the ceaseless but non- 
explosive steaming of Nasu, Takachiho, Saku- 
rajima, and Yakegatake? As for the new vent 
on Asosan, that seems to require a category 
of its own. Here we have indeed a crater that 
is gradually widening itself by means of a 
mighty lateral blast of ash -laden steam ; but 
though fast sapping the parent crater of its 
energy, it brings neither lava nor scoriae to the 
formation of a cone. 

In consequence of these varied processes the 
Japanese volcanoes present a remarkable variety 
of formations. Normality of structure is the 
exception. Hardly two are alike in shape or 
arrangement. It is a new experience to be able 
to walk into a still active crater and survey at 
short range the central vent of an ancient cone ; 
but this the breaching explosions already men- 
tioned have rendered possible in several cases. 
To be able to view from a sharp summit -peak 
the " daily life " of a volcano as pursued with 
vigour in a big lateral crater is another experi-^ 
ence which no one who has been through it is 
likely to forget. The irregularity of Shirane- 
san's build has given us the remarkable spectacle 
of three lakes in a line along the top of a moun- 
tain, each in its own crater, surrounded by grey 

146 





VOLCANIC STUMP, SAMBONTAKE, 
ISLES OF IZU. 



CRATER-FLOOR OF TAKACHIHO, 
KYUSHU, SHOWING THE GREAT 
FUMAROLES. 




TRIPLE-CRATERED SHIRANESAN (kUSATSU). 

The total leiigtli of tlie crater is half a mile. The central, and largest, of the lakes consists of 
boiling sulphurous water. 



To face p. 146. 



Craters, Alive and Dead 

walls of mingled ash and sulphur. While the 
middle lake is boiling, and might be labelled 
dangerous, the other two are cold. Their waters 
have been said to consist of " hydrochloric acid 
with lime and alum ; only needing to be diluted 
and sweetened in order to constitute an excellent 
lemonade." ^ However, some water taken by 
myself in 1906 from one of them was found 
to contain a high percentage of sulphuric acid, 
which could scarcely do for a beverage. This 
linear arrangement of craters on the summit of a 
single mountain is repeated in the case of Ontake 
(eight craters), Shiribeshi-yama (three craters), 
and several other ancient volcanoes. Other 
notable examples of the abnormal are Usudake, 
in the 'Hokkaido, and Yakegatake, among the 
Alps of Hida. The former has at its sumtnit 
an ample crater, nearly half a mile wide, from 
rifts in which steam still issues. Not content 
therewith, it opened, in 19 10, a series of vents 
2,000 feet lower down, almost on the shores 
of a large lake. For several miles along the 
flank of the mountain there now extends an 
inferno of high-piled lava-and-cinder cones, of 
blasted trees, of asphyxiating smoke, and of ash 
deposits, into which one sinks a foot at every 
step. On the lofty Yakegatake things are very 
different. The whole upper surface of the cone 
is thickly coated with volcanic ash, which copious 
» Cf. Murray's Handbook (1907), p. 187. 



Japan's Inheritance 

rain, attending the eruption of 1909, has con- 
verted into cement. Consequently, on leaving 
the col, 7,000 feet high, from which the cone 
is climbed, one has to negotiate, on hands and 
knees, a 1,000-feet slope, with an inclination of 
35° to 400 — like the face of some huge sea-wall 
— looking, the meanwhile, for the smallest gully, 
which friendly runnels may have opened through 
cracks in this adamantine cap. In fact, if it 
were not for the irregularities thlis set up 
in the surface, I doubt if this cone could be 
ascended at all. 

There has been no lack of activity among the 
Japanese volcanoes of late years. An era of 
renewed energy was inaugurated in the seventies 
by two eruptions in the insular part of the Fuji 
line. In the eighties three extinct or dormant 
cones in Northern Hondo broke out, more or 
less destructively. The volcanoes of the South 
then took up the tale, Asosan and Takachiho 
erupting in 1894 and 1895 respectively. This 
was followed, in the first decade of this century, 
by a series of outbreaks in Central Japan and 
in the Hokkaido. New vents have been opened 
or new craters formed in no less than seven 
cases, while four of the outbreaks during this 
period have been attended by loss of life. As 
a rule, the mountains have broken out on the 
flank, forming subsidiary craters ; tuff and scoria 
cones have been thrown up, and showers of ashes 

148 





summit of yakegatake (japanese 
alps). 

The peak is capped with volcanic cement ; below, 
on the riglit, lies the active crater. 



OPEN FOR INSPECTION : BREACHED 
CRATER OF ESAN. 



In the middle distance is the main vent. The 
wall beyond slopes 2,oco feet to the sea. 





^^'••-'w*'^. 




kafi?-W,^v! 



.«*, ilr 



BLASTED PINES ON USUDAKE (iMlu). 

A nearer view of one of the cones shoivn in plate facing p. ii8. The trees, as well as the ground, 
are thickly coated with volcanic ash. 



To face p. 148. 



Craters, Alive and Dead 

laid over wide tracts of land. The only notable 
exudation of lava in recent years was from the 
summit -crater of Tarumai, in south-west Yezo, 
in 1909. The stark and steaming dome of 
andesite, a quarter of a mile in diameter, whidh 
reared itself 200 feet into the air from' the crest 
of that ancient vent, is indeed a link with the 
primeval , 



149 



CHABTER IX 
SOME TYPICAL VOLCANIC ASCENTS 

The island-volcano of Oshima — Difficulty of access — A 
grand Somna — Rival theories — The active crater — A 
great eruption — The build of the island — Asama-yama 
— The form of the volcano — Detonatory eruptions — One 
of the periodical puffs — A fatal outburst — A '' demon- 
stration" — The lava stream — Bandaisan — The un- 
expected in volcanic action — A striking view — A night 
on the crater's brink — A case of possession — The Cross 
of Kyushu — A mighty Somna — Tradition's explanation 
— How was the great ring made ? — Rival theories — What 
are the " Five Peaks " ? — The modern cone — A fiery 
pit — Shinju 

The Island-volcano of Oshima. 

Probably no more perfect specimen of the 
insular volcano could be found than that of 
Oshima, largest of the Shichi-to, or Seven Isles 
of Izu. In shape the island is an irregularly trun- 
cated cone, lo miles in length and 6 in width, 
rising to a height of 2,500 feet above the sea. 
Known also to foreigners as Vries Island — after 

150 



Some Typical Volcanic Ascents 

the Dutch navigator of that name — it Hes some 
60 miles off the entrance of Tokyo Bay, and 
longitudinally — i.e., in a SSE.-NNW. direction— 
along the main line of fissure. Stormy straits, 
some 20 miles wide, separate it, on the west, 
from the peninsula of Izu, and, on the south, from 
the pyramidal islet of Toshima, a denuded cone, 
1,700 feet high, into whose waist the sea is 
eating rapidly, with the resultant formation of 
stupendous overhanging cliffs. 

Oshima is the most accessible of the Isles of 
Izu, but that is not saying a great deal. The 
journey, which occupies two days, is con- 
spicuously devoid of any of the ordinary ameni- 
ties of travel. The traveller who essays to reach 
the island from Tokyo direct must face a night 
of horror on a Japanese " coaster " — a diminutive 
cargo steamer, odorous, invariably crowded, and 
peculiarly susceptible to the motion of the sea. 
When at length he is cast up, or out, it is a-t a 
point on the mainland, whence the island which 
is the object of pursuit can be discerned 
" smoking" on the horizon. Here polite officials 
of the steamboat company will smilingly inform 
him that another steamer will leave for the 
" honourable island " at some time within the 
next four days, weather and other circumstances 
permitting. If he prosecutes his inquiries with 
vigour, however, he will probably learn that a 
" post boat," carrying the Imperial Japanese mail, 

151 



Japan's Inheritance 



is scheduled to sail for the island every day. 
This (according to the taste and fancy of the 
passenger) is a large sampan or a small junk, 
and the hour of departure is anywhere from mid- 
night to 6 a.m., according to wind and tide. 
Even when a start has been made it would be 
rash to count upon getting to the island the same 
day. This venerable post -boat has a trick of 
hugging the coast for half a dozen miles and 
as many hours, and then disgorging its pas- 
sengers upon a rockbound coast to make the 
best of their way back on foot. Be the sky 
never so cloudless, if there is ' the least suspicion 
of a head wind, the crew will elect to cast anchor 
" in a craggy bay " and wait all night, if neces- 
sary, for the wind to veer. 

Oshima has but one harbour, that of Habu — 
a parasitic crater at the south-eastern extremity 
of the island, into which the sea broke in the 
year 1 7 1 6, to the accompaniment of an earth- 
quake and tidal wave. While the entrance is 
both narrow and shallow, and the shelter afforded 
perfect, the harbour itself is inconveniently deep. 
Probably, therefore, either jokisen ^ or sampan 
will bring the traveller to the village of Moto- 
mura — which, as its name implies, is the prin- 
cipal one. From this point the ascent presents 
no difficulty. Nor need the traveller be sur- 
prised if a woman should offer her services as 

^ Steamer. 



Some Typical Volcanic Ascents 

guide. Practically the whole work of the island 
is done by the gentler sex — the men being, with 
scarce an exception, " toilers of the deep." 
Straight as an arrow, and considerably taller 
than the average Japanese woman, the women 
of Vries, though not averse to carrying an occa- 
sional baby on their backs, as in other parts of 
Japan, carry their fagots and their vessels of 
water — as they will carry the ijinsan's chattels— 
on their heads . 

Along the coast numerous reefs and promon- 
tories of a very dark and massive lava, approxi- 
mating to basalt, project into the sea. They 
separate rapidly shelving beaches of clean, 
volcanic sand — almost black in places. On 
this, the less exposed side, the slopes of the 
mountain are beautifully wooded, up to 2,000 
feet. 

From Motomura the path leads through 
groves of cryptomeria, camellia, and boxwood 
trees into the denser foliage which encircles the 
waist of the mountain. Only a thin layer of soil 
covers the deposits of ashes and scorias, many 
feet in thickness, in which the track lies deep. 
At intervals, through openings in the woods, 
delightful views of the surf -fringed shores of the 
island meet the eye. Southwards, the lesser isles 
of Izu may be discerned rising sheer out of the 
sea, while across the channel the rugged hills of 
Izu are crowned by the snow -streaked cone of 

153 




OS HI MA (ixu).. >.. 

A VA-pov-Y Sprt-ng ft In-rn 
M hotoiYi-KYft N,MoTmas>ii H, Hai'K. 

'/.'Mm Lava <vnA <JeVo'» "fJowc. 



Some Typical Volcanic Ascents 

Fuji, triumphant over the gloom in which its 
sweeping base is lost. 

At an elevation of about 2,000 feet the con- 
verging sides of the cone end abruptly in an 
almost circular amphitheatre of cliffs, enclosing 
— save on the east— a comparatively level plain 
2 miles in diameter — the floor of a vast ancient 
crater. From an " abrupt and perilous " brink 
the traveller looks down upon this wilderness 
of lava, sand, and scoriae, in the midst of which, 
nearly a mile away, the present active cone sends 
a stream of brazen-tinted vapour floating heavily 
to leeward. 

The total length of this Somna is about 
four miles. Its upper section consists of strati- 
fied tuffs, agglomerates, and trachytic lava- 
sheets ; the lower, of a talus slope of sand, 
scoriae, and irregular boulders fallen from the 
heights. It attains its highest in the south-east 
and in the north-west, where the cliffs rise to 
300 to 350 feet above the crater floor, suggesting 
greater solidity in the construction of the now 
vanished cone along the axial line. From this 
line the lava floor falls away slightly to the 
north-east and, to a less extent, to the south- 
west. It is on these two sides that the Somna 
has broken down. The entire north-eastern por- 
tion of the floor is covered with the crags and 
humtnocks of a great lava-flow, which, issuing 
from a depression in the rim of the central cone, 

155 



Japan's Inheritance 



has carried away the outer wall for a distance of 
a mile and a half. Subsequent flows of debris, 
partially burying the lava, have made their way 
down the steep slopes of the outer cone almost 
to the sea. On the south-west, the breach in the 
Somna is comparatively small. Here the wall 
appears simply to have subsided down the sea- 
ward slope, to be followed by successive streams 
of ash and detritus. 

Speaking of this ancient crater wall, Professor 
Milne, who made the ascent in 1878 from the 
south, or Habu, side, says : — 

"The rim of this old crater, though a serious obstacle 
on the side of our ascent, is not continuous round the 
mountain, and is only to be seen on the south and south- 
western side." 

The only explanation which suggests itself for 
this statement is the wet and misty weather which 
prevailed at the time of the ascent. Under such 
conditions the opposite wall of the exterior crater, 
some 2 miles distant, would, of course, be totally 
obscured. Dr. Naumann, who accompanied 
Professor Milne on this occasion, seems to have 
fallen into the same delusion, as his " ideal sec- 
tion " of the island, here reproduced, shows the 
exterior crater on one side only. The diagram 
also illustrates the somewhat fanciful theory that 
the crater at Habu was the first or original crater ; 
that a supposed crater (b), to the north of the 

156 




V ->. 



'i'^ 




"* "S ^ "^ 

14-: ^ S -S 






s 


"5 S -J 






X 


'^ ^ S>i "~^ 




.^ 1 1 S 


< 


o'3 ^^S 


< 


s .5 .^ :^ 




X 


"=o "^ ^ S 






s 


^ -^ S « 


fa 


2 ^ -S' ^ 


o 


*^ tS £ -o 




« « « « 


fa 


^ ! :S 13 


a 




o 


Ef "s s e 


o 


e a '~ .2 


J 






Jr -a c .</5 




Z 


" i/j s "ti 



s ^ 



-+:* IT) — -:i -. 



Some Typical Volcanic Ascents 

present one, was the second in the history of 
the volcano ; and that the present crater was the 
third. In other words, the imaginary cone (b) 
was parasitic to the cone (a) at Habu, and the 
present central cone, with its enormous dimen- 
sions, is parasitic to a smaller, and vanished, 
cone (b). This involves a reversal of the natural 




A. Ideal Section of Oshima (Naumann). 

Dr. Naumann supposes Habu, a, to have been the original crater ; an 
imaginary cone, b, the second ; c, the present, and third. 

B. Section, showing, d, the Somna on the nortli side, the non-existence of 

which was assumed by Messrs. Milne and Naumann ; e, e', e", parasitic 
cones to which the northward elongation of the island is due ; /, floor 
of ancient crater ; g, Futago-yama. 

order of things. The existence of a parasitic 
cone implies, as a rule, a diminution of the 
volcanic energies, which thereupon tend to break 
out at some weak spot on the flank rather than 
at the summit. Consequently, a parasitic cone 
rarely, if ever, attains to dimensions as great 
as those of the original cone. It is more 
probable that the present central vent was the 

157 



Japan's Inheritance 



original, and always the principal, channel of 
activity. 

By means of a detour to the right, descent can 
be made to the ancient crater floor. The cross- 
ing of its firm, level surface is an agreeable and 
rapidly accomplished task. Here a mass of lava 
crops out, the jagged end of som'e once moving 
stream ; there a volcanic bomb has exchanged 
a position of hot uncertainty in the subterranean 
fire-vaults for one of greater freedom on the 
wind-swept crater floor. But soon the scorise or 
" cinders " give place to the large angular and 
slaggy fragments which strew the steep sides of 
the cone itself. From time to time, muffled, 
thunderous sounds, which seem to proceed from 
somewhere beneath his feet, accompanied occa- 
sionally by ominous tremblings of the ground, 
serve to remind the traveller that he is on the 
threshold of the infernal world. A few minutes 
more — half an hour suffices for the ascent of 
the cone — and he is gazing into the resonant 
depths of one of the finest active craters in Japan. 
This is a fuming abyss of true crateral shape, 
from a quarter to a third of a mile in width, and 
from 300 to 400 feet deep. Its walls consist of 
sharp-edged, precipitous slopes, varied here and 
there by bold, craggy dykes, and sinking to a 
comparatively level, boulder-strewn space at the 
bottom. In the midst of this yawns the central 
vent or chimney — a sombre, funnel-shaped hole 

158 




A GRAND CRATER : MIHAKA (EASTERN WALL). 



To face p. 158. 



Some Typical Volcanic Ascents 

80 to 100 feet in diameter, within which the lava 
column rises and falls incessantly. In its black- 
red depths, at intervals varying from a few 
seconds to a few minutes, loud explosions take 
place with a bellowing noise, reverberating 
through the whole crater. The escaping vapours, 
invisible at first, take shape as clouds of steam! 
on rising into the air, and form' " a pillar of cloud 
by day, of fire by night." At times of low atmo- 
spheric pressure, and after heavy rain, the quantity 
of vapour emitted from the main vent and from 
the numerous fumaroles in the walls is so great 
that nothing of the crater can be seen beyortd 
the brink. 

Such is Mihara's normal state of activity. But 
at times it is far otherwise. In the strangely 
contorted red and black lava folds heaped about 
the vent on its southern side may be seen the 
remains of an inner cone formed during the great 
eruption . In January, 1878, Professor Milne, who 
visited the scene sixteen days after the eruption 
began, thus describes what he saw from the rim 
of the main crater, after making the ascent from 
Habu :— 

"We came suddenly upon the precipice-like edge of a 
huge black cauldron, roaring, shaking the ground, and eject- 
ing a dense column of red-hot stones and ashes. . . . We 
were able on accourit of our position to look into the crater. 
In the intervals between the ejections the interior could be 
well seen. Now and then large masses of the interior side, 

159 



Japan's Inheritance 



which were black, would slide down towards the throat of 
the crater and reveal a red-hot interior, showing that the 
cone itself was probably red-hot throughout. . . . One side 
of the cone had been blown away. . . . Looking down into 
the crater on this side, molten lava, approximately level with 
the base of the cone, could be seen. At each explosion 
it rose in waves and swayed about heavily like a huge 
basin of mercury, a little of it being apparently pushed 
forwards through the breach to add to a small black-looking 
stream upon the outside. . . . The height to which the 
column of red-hot ashes and volcanic bombs rose after some 
of the explosions must have been nearly i,ooo feet." 

This cone was evidently destroyed— by an 
explosion, or series of explosions, directed later- 
ally—in the course of the same eruption as that 
which created it. A confused mass of debris 
and lava fragments extending along the floor 
of the crater for a considerable distance to the 
north-east, and the portion of the base still visible 
on the opposite side of the vent, are all that 
remains of it. 

Vries Island is popularly supposed to be un- 
troubled by earthquakes, and this belief has been 
adduced as confirmation of the theory that in the 
immediate neighbourhood of active volcanoes 
earthquakes are unknown, the reservoir of molten 
matter acting as a non-conductor of seismic 
waves. In the spring of 1905, however, when 
the Tokyo -Yokohama district was visited by a 
series of disquieting earth -tremors, the headman 
of Oshima reported that a hundred shocks had 
been felt there in the course of one week, the 

160 



Some Typical Volcanic Ascents 

volcano at the same time showing a marked 
increase of activity. Evidences of subsidence are 
visible near the base of the cone on the south 
side. Where the crater floor is at its highest, 
there has been a vertical drop of 6 to 9 feet, the 
line of fracture showing for a distance of a 
quarter of a mile. This may be connected with 
that period of disturbance, *or, more probably, 
may be due to the evisceration of the central 
portion of the cone. 

When it is remembered that the volcano of 
Oshima has been built up through deep water 
from the ocean floor, its great bulk will be the 
more readily appreciated. No doubt, prior to 
the cataclysm which resulted in the formation of 
its crater ring, the mountain was from 1,000 to 
1,500 feet higher than it now is. The andesitic 
ridge which forms the eastern flank of the island 
may be taken to represent the remains of the 
original cone on its emergence above the sea. 
Subsequently the present central vent was re- 
opened, and gave rise to vast accumulations of 
volcanic materials, lava-flows predominating over 
the fragmental products. By these means the 
cone was built up to a height of about 4,000 feet. 
Then followed its truncation — in all probability 
by a series of tremendous explosions — and the 
making of the great Somna. Parasitic craters 
were then opened along the axial line, causing 
the length of the island to exceed its width. 

161 L 



Japan's Inheritance 



Meanwhile activity was renewed at the main vent, 
and the present central cone was built up. Finally, 
as the result of the activities of this cone, the 
ring -wall gave way on two sides, and from the 
gaps thus made poured those great flows of debris 
which form so marked a feature of the island . 

ASAMA-YAMA. 

Only less famous than Fuji itself is the great 
volcano of Asama. Its position at the intersec- 
tion of two lines of volcanic activity doubtless 
accounts for the huge bulk of the cone, the un- 
usual depth of the crater, and its long-continued 
activity. Writing at the time of the last great 
eruption — in 1783 — a Japanese authority says :— 

"The circumference of the crater is about half a ri 
(i J miles). It is of unknown depth, and is filled with sulphur. 
About five years before the eruption it closed itself up and, 
in consequence, ceased to smoke." 

These particulars are of interest as showing that 
the eruption in question, which has been 
described as the most terrible in the history of 
volcanoes, did not affect the dimensions of the 
crater to any appreciable extent ; and that then, 
as now, the cessation of apparent activity was 
Asama's danger-signal — the precursor of some 
sudden and destructive outburst. 

The shape of the best -known and jmost dreaded 

of Japanese volcanoes is abnormal, in that it 

162 



Some Typical Volcanic Ascents 

is rather that of a dome than of a cone. Its sides 
make convex, rather than concave, curves. 
Popular fancy ascribes the " smooth rounded 
appearance " presented by the volcano from a 
distance to the age-long accumulation of ashes ; 
but the discerning eye sees in this dome-like 
shape eloquent proof of Asama's great age 
and of the numerous vicissitudes through which 
it has passed. At a height of about 3,000 feet 
above the tableland on which the volcano has 
reared itself — or about 6,000 feet above sea- 
level — may be observed the remnants of an 
ancient crater which, in its day, must have been 
2 miles in diameter. Within this, and some 
thousand feet above, runs a second " ring." The 
present summit-cone, with its still stupendous 
crater, is therefore at least the third in' the 
volcano's history. It is not the accumulation of 
ashes, but these successive truncations of the 
original cone, and the consequent subsidences of 
the central portion, assisted by the forces of 
denudation, that have given the mountain its 
present shape. 

Asama's modern eruptions may be said to be 
of the detonatory order. On several occasions 
in recent years the people of Tokyo, nearly a 
hundred miles away, have felt a sensation like 
that of an earthquake — and yet which was not 
that of an earthquake — accompanied by a noise 
suggestive of the explosion of some powder 

163 



Japan's Inheritance 



magazine near by. On the morrow, news has 
arrived of an outburst of unusual violence from 
the crater of the great volcano. So frequently 
has this phenomenon occurred in the first week 
or so of December, that it may almost be 
regarded as Asama's way of ushering in the 
winter. I Those who subsequently ascended the 
mountain to behold the work of destruction have 
found the upper surface of the cone strewn, 
indeed, with fragments of a larger size than usual 
— but nothing more. On one occasion, however, 
it was found that the cone had been rent, or 
split, where before it was whole. 

This violently spasmodic action is charac- 
teristic of Asama. So far as I know, it is not 
reproduced in the same manner in any other of 
Japan's many volcanoes. The true explanation 
will, I think, be found in the depth and configura- 
tion of the crater. This, instead of being normal, 
or bowl-shaped, resembles nothing so much as 
a clean-drilled hole in the mountain's top. The 
depth, too, is much above the average — having 
varied, during the past twenty years, from 700 
to 400 feet .2 The combined effect of these un- 

^ The latest example of this was on December 13, 1912. 

^ One (foreign) writer who claims to have had opportunities 
of looking down the crater when comparatively little steam 
was escaping gives it as his opinion that the crater is " at 
least several thousand feet in depth, and perhaps as deep 
as the mountain is high above the surrounding plain." 

164 



Some Typical Volcanic Ascents 

usual conditions must be twofold : the gaseous 
products of the explosions are hindered from 
expanding, while the vents in the floor of the 
crater are more liable to be plugged or choked, 
either by the solid products of the explosions or 
by fragments detached from the all but perpendi- 
cular walls. The behaviour of the volcano lends 
weight to this theory. When it " smokes " con- 
tinually, or " puffs " at very frequent intervals, 
it may be approached with safety. On the other 
hand, to make the ascent when there has been 
a cessation — even of a few days — from these 
minor symptoms of activity is to run a very 
serious risk. 

As the old records show, the violence of 
Asama's outbursts has been associated, in the 
popular mind, with the presence of sulphur. One 
writer of the present day, oblivious of the fact 
that the deposition of sulphurous compounds indi- 
cates the decline of a volcano's energy and the 
closing stage of its career, describes the floor of 
Asama's crater as " a huge solfatara." There are 
many volcanoes in Japan which have reached the 
solfatara stage, but Asama is not one of them. 
In 1904 I subjected the crater floor to a close 
examination with a view to investigating the 
question of these sulphur deposits. Such an 
examination presents considerable difflculty, even 
under favourable conditions, owing to the per- 
pendicularity of the walls, the appalling rotten - 

165 



Japan's Inheritance 

ness of the crater's edge, and the great depth of 
the crater itself. However, the sloping ash-bank 
which forms the rim of the crater is broken in one 
or two places by solid dykes which, traversing 
the bulk of the cone, project a few feet clear 
into the abyss. By lying prone upon one of 
these unpleasant promontories, the whole of the 
crater floor may be surveyed. The process, of 
course, is not one that can be recommended for 
any one subject to' dizziness. My Japanese guide 
took the strongest exception to my availing 
myself of it. Fortunately, he did not pursue me 
down the perilous slope to drag me forcibly out 
of harm's way — that might indeed have ended in 
disaster. Instead, he contented himself with wild 
gesticulation on the summit, punctuated with 
shouts of ** Abanai! " 

The floor, as I saw it on that occasion, lying 
some 600 feet below me, appeared a broken, 
rocky expanse of ground, strewn with big 
boulders and steaming pools. While thus en- 
gaged, I was favoured with one of the volcano's 
periodical explosions. This, as it happened, took 
place from a fumarole on the opposite side of 
the floor, near its junction with the wall. The 
roaring noise which the crater always emits, and 
which resembles nothing so much as that of the 
sea on a wild night, was suddenly intensified, 
while from the aperture on the floor dense 
volumes of black smoke poured in a series of 

166 





ASAMA FROM KARUIZAWA : A " PUFF." 

irhe protuberance on the left is the remnant of 
an ancient crater. 



ONE OF ASAMA'S "UNPLEASANT PROMON- 
TORIES": A PROJECTING DYKE. 

For the most part the lip of the crater is a 
sloping ash-bank. 




THE LAVA STREAM OF I783. 
The cone rises in the left distance. 



To face p. 166. 



Some Typical Volcanic Ascents 

rapid explosions, which produced a whirring noise 
Hke that of a mighty electric fan. As the masses 
of smoke, which presented the characteristic 
" cauliflower " shape, rose into the crater, they 
expanded and became white, showing that the 
blackness which marked the discharge from the 
vent was due simply toi the vapours being charged 
with volcanic ash. When they rose clear of the 
crater, they were swept aside, and as I had taken 
up my position on the windward side, I was able 
to watch the eruption to its conclusion, which 
followed in about two minutes. 

Asama is not always in such quiet mood. 
There are times when to approach the crater, 
still less to attempt to study its depths, would be 
foolhardy in the extreme. Such an occasion 
was the morning of August 15, 191 1, when a 
party of American missionaries and other foreign 
visitors reached the summit at dawn, after making 
the ascent — by night, as usual— from the summer 
resort of Karuizawa, some 10 miles from the 
foot of the mountain. The leading members of 
the party had topped the crater's rim, and were 
just about to peer into its sombre depths, when 
the volcano gave forth a sudden roar, flinging 
into the air a torrent of lava fragments, great 
and small. The visitors, of course, turned and 
fled with all speed down the steep, cinder-strewn 
slopes of the cone ; but a number of them were 

struck by the falling bombs — most of which were 

167 



Japan's Inheritance 



at a red heat. One Unissionary received such 
terrible injuries that he expired before he could 
be conveyed down the mountain. As fate would 
have it, it was the day of the Bon festival, and 
a number of Japanese had also undertaken the 
ascent, not for sport, but as a devotional exer- 
cise. Several of these were likewise injured — 
one fatally — by this unexpected outburst. A 
third victim was a Japanese policeman, Tomita 
by name. The reason for the unfortunate 
officer's presence on the mountain suggests a 
cruel stroke of irony. He had been sent up to 
look for the body of a Japanese who had com- 
mitted suicide the day before by throwing himself 
into the crater ! 

A few summers ago, an American professor 
of divinity, with a thirst for notoriety, added 
to the gaiety of the holiday -making people 
at Karuizawa. There had been several cases of 
suicide on the volcano on the part of Japanese 
students, attributed by the theologian to the 
spiritual darkness in which they walked. Accord- 
ingly, he announced his intention of descending 
into the " Hades " of Asama's crater and return- 
ing thence unscathed, as a proof of the superiority 
of the Christian religion over the forces of the 
nether world. With an elaborate equipment of 
apparatus, and attended by a goodly company of 
the faithful — and, it may be added, of the curious 

— the professor repaired to the summit. The 

1 68 



Some Typical Volcanic Ascents 

volcano was in a quiet state, as it happened, but 
the professor deemed it advisable to limit his 
" demonstration " to walking down the sloping 
ash-bank, at the end of a stout rope, to within 
a safe distance of the point where it drops in 
a sheer precipice to, 'the floor below. Having 
been there photographed, he returned victorious 
to the embraces of his friends. 

The sequel to this incident was perhaps the 
most important part. It took the form of a 
thrilling account, in the American Press, of the 
professor's " Daring Descent into the Awful 
Crater of Asama." 

Perhaps the most striking of Asama's external 
features is a colossal stream of andesite, whereby 
the great eruption of 1783 left its mark for all 
time upon this troubled region. From the lip 
of the crater on the north side to the right bank 
of the Agatsuma, a distance of 15 miles, the 
lava torrent flowed, wiping out as many villages 
and firing the forests through which it cut its way. 
Even after descending the cone itself, the stream 
moved at an average speed of i| miles an hour 
— a high rate of motion for a stream of non- 
basic lava, and eloquent of the high temperature 
at which it must have been ejected. The lava of 
this stream is scoriaceous, like that of Etna, 
and presents a strong contrast to the slaggy 
Oshima lavas, which are Vesuvian. Its volume 
has been estimated at one -twelfth of a cubic 

169 



Japan's Inheritance 

mile, or some thirty times the capacity of 
the crater . 

Of late years there has been a marked increase 
in the violence and frequency of Asama's erup- 
tions. Discounting all minor explosions, seventy 
considerable outbursts have taken place during 
the past five years . Concurrently the floor of the 
vent has been rising at a rate which, if maintained 
for the next twenty-five years, will bring it level 
with the lip of the crater. Judging from' the 
history and present condition of the volcano, it 
is quite within the range of probabilities that a 
really great eruption may occur before then. The 
mountain is under observation by the Tokyo 
authorities ; a seismograph has been set up on 
its flank to measure its pulsations, and the in- 
habitants of the neighbouring villages have been 
warned. At any time may come news of another 
such outpouring of lava, ashes, and destruction 
as that of 1783. 

Bandaisan. 

It is the reward of the climber that he sees 
what must be ever hidden from the dweller in 
the plain. But the climber of volcanoes has 
a recompense which the ordinary mountaineer 
knows not. He has not only his view, his ex- 
hilaration, his inspiration ; he is greeted by a 
vision which rarely fails to be of awe-inspiring 

170 



Some Typical Volcanic Ascents 

magnificence — that of the crater whence the 
mountain he has just ascended was born. Over 
and above all this, the quest of the volcano has 
that zest and excitement which comes from a 
danger which is none the less real because it 
is wrapped in " glorious uncertainty." For in 
the history of volcanic action — especially in Japan 
— the unexpected has played a conspicuous part. 
The climber, therefore, who faces the inferno 
of an active crater, studies its fuming depths, and 
seeks to record on the photographic film some 
impression of its sombre grandeur, may be said, 
in a very real sense, to take his life in his hands. 
Probably no mountain in the world has illus- 
trated so effectively this most sinister aspect of 
volcanic action as did that ill-omened but withal 
majestic mountain, B'andaisan. Prior to 1888 
men deemed it extinct. No eruption had been 
recorded for over a thousand years. In fact, 
the only reference to the volcanic nature of the 
mountain is to be found in an old calendar, which 
speaks of the " creationj " of the volcano by an 
eruption in 807 A. D. It was of Bandaisan that 
Professor Milne said : " Nowhere does its shape 
show any curvature or outline by which its 
volcanic origin could be inferred." That was 
in 1886. Two years later the great explosion 
had occurred — only less in violence than that 
of Krakatoa five years previously — and the name 
of Bandaisan had become a household word. 

171 



Japan's Inheritance 

The height of the mountain is not great — 
5^850 feet above sea-level, or 4,500 above 
Lake Inawashiro, from whose northern shore it 
looms so grandly. Viewed from the south, it 
presents an eminently pacific aspect. The form 
of the mountain, indeed, is bold, and the peak, 
which forms its summit, sharp ; but its slopes, 
steep though they are, conceal beneath a veil 
of grass and pine and stunted oak the ancient 
lava streams of which they are composed. There 
is not a hint of steam, of hissing vents, or 
primeval heat. The mountain's frown is re- 
served for the other side — for the bleak, riven, 
devastated north. Much has been said of the 
striking contrast presented by the fuming gorge 
on one side of the ridge of Ojigoku, in Hakone, 
and the smiling valley on the other. But the 
prospect to be viewed from the broken ridge of 
O-Bandai transcends it immeasurably. On the 
one hand, the great blue lake, with its wooded 
islets and shapely promontories, the central 
feature of a smiling landscape, spread, map-like, 
at one's feet ; on the other, the torn mountain, 
still reeking from' its deadly wound, the long 
rows of stupendous cliffs, the scattered remnants 
of the wrecked crater spread for miles over the 
country-side, and, gleaming in the distance, the 
waters of lakes brought by that outburst into 
sudden being. And all this was the work of 
five minutes of a summer morning ! 

172 



Some Typical Volcanic Ascents 

No one can truly solve the riddle of 
Bandaisan unless he mounts to the summit of 
its loftiest peak. This will not be achieved 
without considerable toil, for the upper slopes 
of the cone present an angle of 45°; but the 
results are well worth the labour. From that 
commanding view-point, the ragged brink of a 
precipice 1,000 feet high, he will see, and 
understand, all. Not only does there lie before 
him one of the most extensive — and, taken all 
round, most impressive — mountain prospects in 
Japan, but near at hand is the record of the great 
eruption, written in fractured rock-walls and in 
lines of steaming vents. At his feet sinks the 
gloomy abyss of an ancient crater, in the shape 
of a horse-shoe, its open end towards the south- 
east. It is half a mile in length and 1,000 feet 
deep . Across the gulf soars another peak, almost 
as high. To his right the wall is continued in 
a third peak ; but to his left, the bend of 
the horse -shoe, there is a gaping void. At 
7.45 a.m. on the morning of July 15, 1888, 
a fourth peak, little inferior in height and size 
to that on which the spectator stands, and 
adjoining it, constituted this part of the crater - 
wall. Five minutes later it had disappeared. 
Such, in brief, is the story of the great 
explosion . 

If one could imagine the peak of Snowdon 
knocked away, as by some mighty battering- 

173 




The Crater of Bandaisan (diagrammatic). 

a. Ancient Crater, b. Modern Crater, formed by the 
destruction of Ko-Bandai. a Summit of O-Bandai. 
ff. Main lines of fracture, x x Solfataras. The 
arrows indicate the direction of the main flow of 
debris. The position of the Onsen, or Hut, is indi- 
cated by a small black circle. The village and lake 
of Inawashiro, near which the stream of debris 
stopped (after flowing round to the right), lie to the 
south of the crater ; Lake Hibara, to the north. 



Some Typical Volcanic Ascents 

ram, from above GlaslyH, one would have a fair 
idea of what happened on Bandaisan on that 
eventful day. But Ko-Bandaisan was not merely- 
knocked away : it was torn up by the roots . A 
sharp, broken ridge, but little above the level 
of the floor, marks the line of fradture on the 
inner side of the crater wall. The real seat of 
the explosion, however, from whence its main 
force was directed, lies in a deep gully 600 feet 
below, on the outer side. The precipitous slope 
between these two lines — riddled, to this day, 
with steaming vents — was, so to speak, the ful- 
crum from which the accumulated forces of 
imprisoned steam exerted their irresistible power. 
The doomed peak was lifted bodily from its 
foundations and flung in a myriad fragments, 
together with enormous quantities of dust and 
steam, in a torrent of mud and rocks down the 
steep sides of the mountain into the valley below. 
For 8 miles in a straight line this ghastly torrent 
rushed with incredible speed, damming up a 
considerable river, the Nagase ; and forming 
three lakes, one of which. Lake Hibara, is at 
least as large as Ullswater. Then, deflected in 
its course by the hills opposite, it turned sharply 
to the right down the valley. Here its course 
was still more deadly. Seven villages were 
partly destroyed and four, with their inhabitants 
to the number of 461, were buried as completely 
as Pompeii and Herculaneum in A.D. 79. 

175 



Japan's Inheritance 



With all this, it must be remembered, the out- 
burst on Bandaisan was not a normal volcanic 
eruption. There was no discharge of volcanic 
ash or scoria ; no vent was opened to serve 
as the funnel or chimney of some subterranean 
lava-column ; there was no outflow of lava ; no 
building up of a cone. From the presence of 
hot springs on the western and northern flanks 
of the mountain, however, one of which issues 
at a height of nearly 5,000 feet, it might have 
been inferred that the original heat of the volcano 
still persisted, and at no great depth below the 
surface. To these incandescent regions, as the 
result of the subsidence of strata about the base 
of the mountain, large quantities of water, drawn, 
doubtless, from Inawashiro, found access. An 
immense accumulation of steam was thus 
effected, to which the solid superstructure of 
the ancient cone offered stubborn resistance ; and 
to that resistance, in its turn, must be attributed 
the appalling violence of the final outburst. 
That the explosion differed in kind from the 
true volcanic eruption is further evidenced by 
its brief duration, whereas the latter is often a 
matter of weeks and months. The time-table 
of the eruption is as follows : — 

July 15, 1888. 

7 a.m. Rumbling noises, thought by the people to be 

thunder. 
7.30 ,, An earthquake of moderate severity, lasting half 

a minute. 

176 




LAKE HIBARA FROM THE SUMMIT OF BANDAISAN. 

Jormed by the damming of the Nagasegmva in the eruption of 1888. The 
lake is eight miles in length. 



To face p. 176. 



Some Typical Volcanic Ascents 

July 15, 1888. 

7.40 a.m. A violent shaking of the ground. 

7.45 „ The eruption began, explosions following in rapid 

succession to the number of fifteen or twenty. 
Clouds of steam and dust were shot into 
the air to a height of 4,000 feet above the 
summit of the mountain, with loud thunder- 
ous noises. 

7.46 „ The final and loudest explosion, directed laterally, 

dislodged the peak of Ko-Bandaisan. 

7.50 „ Pitchy darkness in the vicinity of the mountain, 
accompanied by a heavy fall of warm rain. 
Immediately afterwards, the avalanche of 
rocks and mud overwhelmed the Nagase 
valley. 

9.30 „ The thunderous noises, which continued to be 
emitted from the mountain, but with lessen- 
ing intensity, were no longer heard. 

As might have been expected, the several 
onsens, or bathing -huts, on the mountain were 
not spared. A curious fate is said to have over- 
taken the highest of these, the Yamanaka Onsen 
(Within-the-Mountain Hut), which happened to 
be situated precisely on the line of fracture and 
about on a level with the crater floor. The 
story goes that one of the two rooms of which 
the building consists was carried away by the 
avalanche, with, of course, its inmates, while the 
other room was left standing and its occupants 
escaped with their lives. On my first visit to 
the mountain, in 1907, I became acquainted with 
a different version of the story. My plan was 

177 M 



Japan's Inheritance 



to follow up the course of the stream of debris 
from its termination, near the village of Inawa- 
shiro, to its source on the breast of the main 
peak. The track leads up the Nagase valley, 
past — or, rather, over— ^the buried hamlets, to the 
point where that most energetic stream, issuing 
from the recently formed lakes, has made for 
itself a new bed in the wilderness of mud and 
rocks — over loo feet deep — in which for a time 
it was lost. Here the path turns sharply to the 
left and, ascending rapidly, makes between a 
double line of stupendous red cliffs in the direc- 
tion of the great fracture. It was still early in 
the season, and the upper part of the mountain, 
including the floor of the rift, lay deep in the 
winter's snow. On either hand rose the mighty 
rock -walls and, right ahead, the precipitous slope 
which marked the lip of the fracture. The 
lowering cloud-mists overhead completed the 
sense of isolation and imprisonment. One felt 
as if one were within, not on, a mountain. From 
time to time ominous movements of the ground 
were felt, which drew from my guide the laconic 
comment, " Jisshin " (earthquake) ; and in their 
wake large fragments of rock, dislodged from 
the cliffs, clattered noisily to the floor. From 
hundreds of steam-vents in the precipitous slopes 
before us and to our right there issued not only 
torrents of steam and sulphurous vapours, but 
a continual roaring as of many vast boilers work- 

178 



Some Typical Volcanic Ascents 

ing at high pressure. The only way out of this 

colossal cul de sac was by a treacherous path 

which wound its uncertain way up the perilous 

slope on the northern face of the ridge. It was 

first necessary to traverse a gully at the base 

of the cliff, with an ugly-looking bed of snow, 

whose inner edges melted into greenish slime 

where the solfataras played upon them. With 

no small trepidation we did this, and then 

scrambled upwards, threading our way with all 

caution amidst the hissing vents, each with a 

patch of rotten -looking yellow ground about it. 

At length, on nearing the crest of the ridge, after 

a difficult and somewhat dangerous climb of 

twenty minutes, we found ourselves at the 

rough-hewn door of a little hut, which seemed 

literally to overhang the abyss. It was the 

Yamanaka Onsen, occupying the same site as 

its famous but ill-fated predecessor. 

Beyond this my guide refused to proceed. He 

had a dozen reasons to advance by way of excuse, 

some of them, as it turned out, weighty enough. 

Night was coming on, the other slope of the 

ridge was steep, boulder-strewn, and altogether 

too dangerous to be attempted by the dim light 

of a chochin.^ No course remained but to accept 

the hospitality of the Yamanaka Onsen. That 

in doing so I, at least, experienced some qualms 

was, perhaps, excusable. Ko-Bandai was blown 

^ Paper lantern. 
179 



Japan's Inheritance 

away in five minutes : so many things may 
happen in a night. 

The tenants of this eerie dweUing -place were 
a man, his wife, and two sturdy sons of twelve 
to fourteen. Their daily fare consisted of rice, 
with a piece of salted fish or pickled dalkon 
(radish), and magi-ya (barley water). During 
the day, of course, it was always possible to 
get warm by soaking in the hot spring ; by 
night the beds were made up to the edge of 
a charcoal fireplace let into the floor, over which 
the covering qui^ was spread. This latter device 
certainly proved a boon. Straw had been freely 
used, without and within, between the loosely 
bound planks of the hut, " to expel the winter's 
flaw ", ; but the keen nor'-wester which swept 
the mountain that night found numerous weak 
spots in the walls of the zasshiki.^ An occasional 
whifl' of sulphur from the solfataras below, find- 
ing its way through the cracks, lent pungency 
to the chilly air. Physical exhaustion, however, 
came to our aid. Neither the earthquake waves 
nor the ceaseless roar from the abyss frightened 
from us sleep. 

Mine host of the Yamanaka Onsen, before 

sending us on our way by the morning light 

(having exacted the sum of 85 sen for our 

accommodation), gave a categorical denial to the 

picturesque story of the partial destruction of 

^ Guest-room. 
180 



Some Typical Volcanic Ascents 

the hut. The whole building, he said, was over- 
whelmed, and not one of its twenty inmates 
escaped. This version was subsequently con- 
firmed by an old resident of Wakamatsu, the 
nearest large town, who, as proof of the same, 
pressed upon me a photograph of the spot taken 
as soon after the eruption as was feasible. 

The only person who saw the great eruption 
from start to finish without feeling himself under 
the necessity of fleeing for his life was an old 
rustic, who happened to be ascending one of 
the neighbouring hills at the time. This good 
man, it seems, had chanced to see a fox that 
morning ; and foxes, as is well known, have 
the power of bewitching mortals, so as to cause 
them to see all manner of strange things which 
are not really happening. The extraordinary 
commotion in progress on the other side of the 
valley, he therefore concluded, was but a vast 
hallucination prepared by Reynard for his annoy- 
ance, and the best way of frustrating the 
machinations of his wanton enemy was calmly to 
watch the performance to the end — which he 
did. It was only on descending to the foot of 
the mountain that he learned that Reynard, after 
all, was not to blame for the affair. 

The Ringed Mountain, Asosan. 

Accumulated materials from craters still 

visible — whether active or extinct — as well as 

i8i 



Japan's Inheritance 

from many m:ore that are dead and gone, over- 
lie two -thirds of the whole area of Kyushu. Two 
lines of weakness traverse the island from east 
to west, one across the waist, the other across 
the northern coast. The greater of these forms 
a ridge parallel with, and to the north of, the 
ancient schist or backbone range, and extends 
from' Unzen, in the west, to Kungo, in the east. 
Midway this zone is intersected by the Satsuma 
line, whose course is marked by the noble cones 
of Kaimon, Sakurajima, and the Kirishima 
range. At the point of intersection stands the 
grand volcanic mass of Asosan. 

With its great Somna, 40 miles in circumfer- 
ence, Asosan may claim' to be one of the most 
remarkable of terrestrial mountains. The 
dimensions of other rival craters or crater-rings 
are : — 

The Caldera of Palma (Canary 

Islands) 9 miles in diameter. 

Pantellaria, off Sicily 8x6 ,, „ 

Bolsena (crater lake, Central Italy) 10 x 7i „ „ 

" Crater Lake," Oregon 8x6 „ „ 

Papandyang (Java) 15 X 6 „ „ 

A German explorer in East Africa has dis- 
covered, south of Kilima-Njaro, an ancient crater 
measuring 35 miles in circumference, for which 
a claim of superiority has been set up ; but 
Asosan still remains unequalled, with its dimen- 

182 



Some Typical Volcanic Ascents 

sions of 14 miles by 10, the longer diameter 
running north and south. 

The slopes leading up to the brink of the 
exterior wall are gentle, with an average inclina- 
tion of 6 to 8°, but their origin— apart from their 
contour — is clear. They are composed of a 
succession of lava-flows, several of which are 
of great thickness, and show the characteristic 
columnar structure. Where they end abruptly in 
the edge of the old crater their height above sea- 
level is from 2,000 to 2,500 feet. Indeed, the 
whole girdle of cliff and escarpment, considering 
its extent, is wonderfully uniform in height. The 
crater is entered by the only gap in its circuit 
— a rocky gorge, 600 feet deep, which forms an 
outlet for the river Shirakawa. Once within 
the crater — the lower portions of whose floor are 
cultivated and support a population of 4,000 
to 5,000 people, distributed over a score of good- 
sized villages — the gentle upward slope begins 
again, and culminates in the centre in a rugged 
group of five peaks. At the base of this central 
mass, in a comparatively low and small cone, 
the life of this ancient monarch among volcanic 
mountains is still preserved. 

According to tradition, the whole ancient 
crater was formerly occupied by a lake, out of 
which the central peaks emerged as a steep and 
rocky island. It then occurred to the god of the 
mountain that here much good land that might 

183 



Japan's Inheritance 



be available for cultivation was being wasted. 
So he kicked a breach in the containing wall and 
thus drained the crater. 

This story has probably arisen through con- 
fusion with that of the " Wondrous Pond on 
Mount Aso/' of which the old records have so 
much to say. This pond, which was given to 
" roaring " and ejecting stones, probably occu- 
pied the site of the modern central cone . Its 
dimensions are given by one authority as 4,000 
feet, or nearly three-quarters of a mile, in length 
— which corresponds roughly with the aggregate 
length of the present crater. No doubt this pond 
showed a geyser-like activity like that of the 
central lake on Shiranesan. When the crater 
preceding the present active one was breached 
on its western side the lake, of course, was 
destroyed. In its place, as the result of a pro- 
longed period of activity, the modern active cone 
has been built up. 

By what forces and processes has the present 
form of the mountain been produced? Three 
theories have been put forward to account for 
the great crater-ring — first, what may be called 
the lunar theory ; second, the eruptive theory ; 
and, thirdly, the theory of subsidence. Accord- 
ing to the first, the central mass represents the 
original volcano, from which, in a series of 
eruptions of approximately equal force, quanti- 
ties of debris were discharged in all directions, 

184 




MAIN CRATER OF ASOSAN : AN EXPLOSION. 

Depth of crater, 200 feet. The photograph shows well the characteristic "cauliflower" steam- 
clouds charged with volcanic ash. 



To face p. 184. 



Some Typical Volcanic Ascents 

and their accumulations gave rise to the crater- 
ring. This theory, however, is demohshed by 
the presence in the ring of soUd lava which has 
cooled in situ, as an examination of the strata 
in the breach already mentioned shows. The 




THE STRUCTURE OP AS«-SAPi 

( J3 \ a.gTs.Tr.TnatTe). 

^ Rivt-f ShiTaVsLWR V. Villa-ge of Bojiv- 

The broken line suggests the original form of the cone. Dimensions of the crater-ring, 
10 miles by 14, 



gently inclined slopes which rise from all direc- 
tions to the rim of the exterior crater form part 
of the flanks of the great original cone from 
which the lava flowed. What, then, has become 
of the original cone, which in its prime must 
have had a height of 10,000 feet? Either it 

185 



Japan's Inheritance 

has been blown away by some cataclysmic ex- 
plosion, or it has been engulfed in the vast 
hollows produced by the removal of materials 
from beneath the base of the mountain. As 
the bulk of the part of the cone removed was 
not less than 28 cubic miles in volume — a mass 
equal to two and a half mountains like Vesuvius 
— it should be possible to find irregular frag- 
mental masses or deposits of agglomerate in the 
vicinity of the mountain. None have as yet been 
found — and, on the strength of this, there is 
certainly a primd-facie case in favour of the 
subsidence theory. But an explosion may be 
so violent as to blow a mountain into the finest 
dust. This actually happened in the Krakatoa 
outburst of 1883, when the minute particles re- 
sulting from the explosion were sent all round 
the world, affecting the colouring of sunsets 
in Europe for two or three years afterwards. 
Since an explosion sufficient to remove so great 
a mass as the upper part of Asosan — assuming 
that such an explosion took place — must have 
been much greater than even the Krakatoa out- 
burst, is it inconceivable that a similar result 
was produced in the case of the great Japanese 
volcano, or that some of the finer-bedded tuffs 
in the central portion of Kyushu owe their origin 
to such an event? It only remains for some 
one to find, on or near the outer slopes of the 
ancient crater of Asosan^ a lump or two of 

186 



Some Typical Volcanic Ascents 

volcanic agglomerate — as Dr. Tempest Anderson 
did on the edge of Crater Lake, Oregon — to 
establish the theory that the vast Somna of Aso 
owes its existence to one colossal explosion. 

Advocates of the subsidence theory presup- 
pose " the escape of vast quantities of lava from' 
points far below the summit of the cone, leaving 
a cavity large enough to engulf the whole of the 
unsupported mountain mass. . . . The completed 
work probably left the whole of the sunken 
mountain melted in a leval lake within the great 
cauldron." "^ If it be granted that the explosion 
theory as yet lacks proof, it may still be main- 
tained that the rugged peaks which occupy the 
centre of the ancient crater represent a part of 
the original cone which sank to its present level, 
but was not engulfed. The lava of these peaks 
is, like that of the Caldera, andesitic^. They are 
disposed, not in a straight line, but in a curve 
about the present active cone, which is situated 
at their base. From the open side of the curve 
— that on which the modern cone lies— a series 
of mounds and ridges extend in the direction 
of the Yuno-tani geyser and of the distant 
breach. These mounds are suggestive in their 
form of two things : ( i ) irregular heaps of 
debris, such as might have resulted from the 
breaching of the original cone after its subsi- 

^ Cf. a paper by Mr. Robert Anderson, of Washington, in 
the Popular Science Monthlv, 1907. 

187 



Japan's Inheritance 



dence ; or (2) subsidiary cones and craters now 
overgrown. Further, all this accords with the 
trend of the transverse line of weakness, which 
passes under the gap westward towards the 
Shimabara Peninsula and the ancient volcano of 
Unzen. 

The modern cone of Asosan, whose height 
does not exceed 300 feet, contains five craters, 
divided by !mud and ash walls, like those of 
Shiranesan (Kusatsu). Of these, the two 
northern only are active. The average depth 
of the craters is 200 feet. At the base of the 
cone, on the opposite (south) side, a new vent 
was opened in 1907. This is an oval pit — at 
first 10 by 16, now 30 by 50 feet, and steadily 
increasing in size . The rocks composing its walls 
are wholly at red heat, and masses of lava are 
piled against its outer lip. From it dense 
volumes of smoke are discharged, laterally and 
incessantly, with a thunderous noise. The lower 
folds of smoke, or rather steam, are darkened 
by innumerable particles of black ash like grains 
of gunpowder, and appear to contain tongues of 
flame. This is merely the reflection from the 
incandescent walls of the vent. Flames are un- 
known in volcanic phenomena, except in the rare 
cases where lava charged with steam at a high 
temperature has been known to effect the 
chemical decomposition of the latter, when the 
liberated hydrogen, as it escapes, takes fire. 




THE NEW VENT ON ASOSAN. 



opened in 1907; the sides oj the vent are still at a red heat. The ru!<ged heights in the back- 
ground are part of the encircling '•Five Peaks of Asosan"~see diagram on p. 185. 




GORGE OF THE SHIRAKAWA, ASOSAX. 

The river has made a breach— the only one— in llie great crater-ring (see p. 183). 

The slopes of the inner cone, cultivated in terraces, rise on the left. 

To face p. 



Some Typical Volcanic Ascents 

The heat from this newly opened vent is hardly 
bearable at a distance of 20 yards, and the roar, 
which can be heard two miles away, is like that 
of a mighty blast furnace. 

The new vent is of interest as illustrating the 
initial stage in the formation of a parasitic cone, 
thoup'^' the blast is at present too violent to allow 
o^ tne deposition of materials near the vent. 
It has already had a marked effect upon the 
main crater. The activity of the latter has been 
substantially reduced, and its extinction may be 
expected to follow at no very distant date. This 
will in all probability give rise to increased 
activity at the vent, which will tend to widen 
itself upwards along the flank of the cone. This 
in its turn may cause obstruction of the vent, 
with a subsequent outburst of great violence, 
accompanied by the formation of a crater of sub- 
stantial dimensions. Aso's career has been long 
and chequered ; but we are not yet at the end 
of it. 

Certair of Japan's volcanoes seem to make 
a dangerous appeal to that morbid and un- 
balanced type of mind which is found with dis- 
tressing frequency among Japanese students. 
The most terrible of Japanese craters have 
frequently been chosen as a place and means 
of suicide. Asosan has an evil reputation in 
this respect. It is not the vast crater-ring, with 
its mighty cliffs, nor even the modern active 

189 



Japan's Inheritance 

crater, with its incessant clouds of steam, that 
appeals to the Japanese student weary of life ; 
it is this red-hot vent, recently opened on the 
flank of the cone. On the occasion of my last 
visit to this magnificent mountain, in 1907, after 
leaving the temple and torll at the base of the 
cone, I approached the new inferno. About 
twenty yards from its brink lay a large ejected 
rock, weighing, perhaps, a couple of tons. 
Nearer than that it was not possible to go with- 
out having the hair scorched from' one's face. 
Behind this boulder, watching with strange in- 
tentness the billowy vapours, mixed apparently 
with flames, crouched a Japanese student. It was 
with mingled feelings that I covered as hastily 
as possible the intervening space, and, taking 
up my place behind the sheltering rock, engaged 
the youth in conversation. He responded 
courteously enough, but a few minutes later 
rose and retraced his steps towards the temple. 
He had given me no indication of his inten- 
tions, but my guide vouchsafed the opinion that 
the young man had been meditating shin/a 
(suicide). 



190 



CHAPTER X 
EARTHQUAKES 

The Japanese earthquake a serious thing — Tantrums of a 
subterranean dragon — Earthquakes and "nerves" — 
Effect on the Japanese character — Earthquake super- 
stitions — A mischievous canard — Quakes great and small 
— Historic shocks — Source of Japan's quakes — Horizontal 
and vertical motion — Causes of earthquakes — Their pre- 
diction — Is the Japanese house " the offspring of the 
earthquake " ? — Other reasons for its design — Earthquake- 
proof buildings 

The story is told of a European lady who, at 
dead of night and clad in gossamer attire, ran 
at incredible speed along the main road of one 
of Japan's foreign settlements. Like Abraham, 
she went not knowing whither, and might have 
thus continued to this day had not a friendly 
Japanese policeman firmly but kindly arrested her 
headlong flight with the query, " You ran why? 
It is finished/ " 

Then there was the American merchant, 
recently arrived in the country with the fixed 

191 



Japan's Inheritance 

intention of " getting rich' quick," who jumped 
with strange precipitance from a first-floor 
window, broke his leg, and returned per first 
steamer whence he came, cursing volubly. By- 
way of excuse for this victim, it may be men- 
tioned that he had passed through an unpleasant 
experience of a somewhat similar character at 
'Frisco not long since. 

These two incidents should convince the in- 
credulous stay-at-home Occidental that the 
Japanese earthquake is a serious thing. If not, 
it should sufhce to mention that a Chair of 
Seismology has been established in the Tokyo 
University, and that the Japanese Education 
Department includes an " Earthquake Damage 
Prevention Committee." 

The ancients of the Western world believed 
that earthquakes were caused by subterranean 
winds essaying to burst their prison doors. In 
the East, these phenomena have been more 
generally attributed to the tantrums of a subter- 
ranean dragon, whose tail, in moments of excite- 
ment, comes into more or less violent contact 
with the superincumbent land. At Kashima, in 
Eastern Japan, pilgrims are ceremoniously in- 
troduced to a pillar of stone which some con- 
siderate deity is said to have driven an immense 
distance into the earth with a view to restrain- 
ing the monster. Japanese writers, of no very 
remote period, have even ventured to assign 

192 



Earthquakes 



definite proportions to this formidable creature. 
His head lay beneath the centre of Northern 
Hondo^ his tail extended midway between the 
two capitals — the basis for this theory being 
that the last-mentioned district was peculiarly 
subject to these destructive visitations. In more 
recent times the attempt has been made to lay 
the blame for these calamitous upheavals at the 
door of volcanic force. Many are the impre- 
cations which ignorance has hurled at Fujiyama 
— the type-mountain of volcanic iniquity — for 
disasters with which that silent peak has not 
the remotest connection. Even a standard work 
of reference hazards the suggestion that the 
Tuscarora Deep, apparent source of most of the 
seismic waves that quiver through Japan, is 
nothing more or less than a vast subterranean 
crater. 

According to the traveller Humboldt, the in- 
habitants of countries troubled by earthquakes — 
such as certain parts of South America — some- 
times have a presentiment of their advent. The 
good folk of New England were on several 
occasions forewarned of the approach of an 
earthquake by an uncomfortable sensation in the 
pit of the stomach. In Japan it is common to 
speak of a sultry and oppressive state of the 
atmosphere as " earthquake weather." A modern 
physician would probably diagnose this " pre- 
monitory sense " as " nerves." The repeated 

193 N 



Japan's Inheritance 

occurrence of earthquake shocks undoubtedly 
reduces quite unneurotic persons to a very 
" jumpy " state. Cases have been observed of 
people who, having lived for some years in a 
country subject to earthquakes and having 
subsequently returned to one where such move- 
ments are unknown, have nevertheless retained 
the special sensitiveness to tremors implanted 
in them by their past experiences. The vibra- 
tion caused by a passing train or by some heavy 
vehicle has been sufficient to reproduce the 
peculiar sickening <sensation set up, in years 
gone by, by a genuine earthquake. 

A study of earthquake averages shows that 
every inhabitant of the Japanese islands must 
expect to encounter at least one catastrophic 
earthquake in the course of his life. Never- 
theless, it must be admitted that this nervous 
expectancy of which we have been speaking 
characterizes rather the stranger in Japan than 
the people of the country. The Japanese are 
too practical, and at the same time too insouciant, 
thus to meet trouble half-way . Perhaps an innate 
fatalism — a certain carelessness of life — contri- 
butes in their case to greater evenness of mind ; 
or it may be this very fatalism is itself the 
creation of the earthquake. Cynics have repre- 
sented this stoicism of the Japanese as more 
apparent than real, as merely the result of the 

superior ease with which they conceal their 

194 



Earthquakes 

feelings, and even as due to a lower physical 
development ; but the above is, I think, the 
true explanation. Nor has a modern Humboldt 
succeeded in discovering among them the 
existence of a premonitory sense, though appre- 
ciable progress has been made in the direction 
of scientific prediction of earthquakes. This is 
not to say, of course, that the advent of an 
obviously violent shock does not produce alarm 
and even panic among the whole population 
affected. On the occasion of the great earth- 
quake of 1830, which destroyed a large part 
of Kyoto, it is on record that the inhabitants, as 
a whole, were completely unmanned by the 
catastrophe. For three days and nights they 
lived and slept on straw mats spread in the 
streets, not lifting a fi.nger to repair the damage 
that had been done, but praying to the gods 
for mercy and relief. 

Despite the educational efforts of the Seis- 
mological Society and the Mombusho,^ super- 
stition regarding earthquakes retains a place in 
the popular mind. Much of it finds embodiment 
in weather-predicting rhymes on the lines of 
" A red sky at night is the shepherd's delight," 
but with a smaller percentage of truth. Pro- 
fessor Chamberlain's rendering of one of these 
runs as follows : — 

* Department of Education. 
195 



Japan's Inheritance 

At twelve o'clock it means disease, 

At eight or four 'tis rain ; 
At , ten 'tis drought, while six and two 

Of wind are tokens plain. 



There is in Tokyo a certain well^ said to be 
the deepest in the city^, which has never been 
known to dry up save once — and that was im- 
mediately before the great earthquake of 1855. 
Another widespread belief is that while bad 
earthquakes are supposed to occur once in every 
twenty years, the really cataclysmic shock comes 
once in fifty. In the spring of 1906, when the 
public mind had been somewhat disturbed by 
several disquieting shocks, the report got abroad 
that the famous well had suddenly dried up ! 
Some heartless wretch had conceived the idea 
of combining the two traditions into an ominous 
whole. If his object was to destroy public 
equanimity, he certainly succeeded, for never 
was belief in an impending calamity more widely 
held. Fortunately, nothing happened — save that 
the well theory received its quietus. 

At the time of Prince Arthur of Connaught's 

Garter Mission to Japan, in similar circumstances 

of public disquietude, a cleverer miscreant got 

to work. Several nasty jars had occurred during 

the night, and it was an uneasy audience, in which 

official Tokyo was largely represented, that 

assembled for a gala performance at the Uyeno 

196 



Earthquakes 

Park Academy. The entertainment had not long 
begun^ when a message reached the directors 
that an urgent " earthquake warning " had just 
been issued from the Seismological Observatory. 
Word was passed to Sir Claude MacDonald, then 
British Ambassador, who, fearing a panic and a 
dangerous rush for the doors, quietly intimated 
the purport of the communication to the dis- 
tinguished guests. The royal party and corps 
dlplomatiqiie left their seats with as much dignity 
and deliberation as the circumstances permitted, 
and within five minutes the theatre was empty. 
The " warning " — a canard, of course — was 
believed to have been engineered by a gang 
of thieves, who hoped in the confusion of the 
ensuing sauve qui peat to reap a rich harvest. 
For the ordinary person, unblest with a seis- 
mometer, it is hard, in all conscience, to draw the 
line between tremors just strong enough to be 
felt and those severe enough to make men edge 
instinctively towards the door or rise hastily 
from their beds ; between shocks which stop 
the clock, throw ornaments from the mantel- 
piece, and break bottles in the cellars, and those 
which open ugly cracks in walls, strip roofs of 
tiles, and bring brick chimneys crashing through 
the house-top. In other words, it is difficult to 
say what measure of vibration — horizontal or 
vertical (a little of the latter goes a long way) — 

and what amount of subsequent damage, con- 

197 



Japan's Inheritance 

stitute a " severe " earthquake. Thus, when the 
sceptic Occidental reads in works of reference 
that there have been only two " severe " shocks 
in the last fifty years, he is apt to conclude 
that a great deal too mudh is made of this earth- 
quake business. An eight years' residence in 
the country has given me recollections of four 
distinct occasions when the community as a 
whole was for several days together in a 
thoroughly nervous state ; and at least three on 
which all who could get out of their houses did 
so, regardless of appearances and with the least 
possible delay ; while those who could not, made 
haste to bestow themselves under tables, beds, 
and door-lintels. Nor were they ashamed after- 
wards to confess it. 

At such times earthquakes, and what to do 
when they arrive, are the sole topic of conversa- 
tion. To run out of one's house is held to be 
a mistake, because of the danger from falling 
tiles, copings, and chimney-stacks. Neverthe- 
less, to remain indoors calls for some courage. 
I have heard more than one man express the 
hope that when a bad shock did come it would 
find him in club or hotel, where he could take 
refuge under the billiard-table. I once was 
dining in a friend's house when an obviously bad 
quake commenced. The low roaring sound, 
and an alarming rattle of the windows in their 
frames, betokened an unusual amount of vertical 

198 



Earthquakes 

motion. Every one rose from' the table, and 
my hostess, in great distress, implored me to 
save her little boy, who was asleep upstairs. I 
performed the mission as expeditiously as 
jammed doors and swaying stairs permitted, and 
rejoined the party, to find the fond parent on a 
garden seat in a state of collapse and the others 
watching the rocking house, in doubt as to 
whether its downfall or my emergence would 
be the first to occur. 

Two of these anxious times were in early 
spring — the early part of April seems a par- 
ticularly " busy " season from' the seismic point 
of view — one in midsummer, and the other at 
the beginning of winter. The earthquake of 
March 13, 1909, which apparently had the 
approach to Yokohama 'Harbour for its epicen- 
trum, was unquestionably the worst. Accurate 
measurements of this quake are not available, as 
one of its earliest misdeeds was to throw the 
local seismograph out of gear. The maximum 
amplitude was, however, found from other data 
to have been four-fifths of an inch, while the 
oscillations lasted eleven minutes. Many of the 
foreign -style houses on the high ground of the 
Bluff, as well as on the low " made " ground 
of the settlement, suffered serious injury. 
Several lives were lost as the result of falling 
walls, and many a good man thought his last 

hour had come. But, as Oom Paul would have 

199 



Japan's Inheritance 



said, the moral and intellectual damage exceeded 
the material. A wilderness of shattered nerves 
was left in the wake of that seismic wave. 

■However, things are not so bad as they might 
be — or, if we may accept the old records, as they 
were. Destructive earthquakes occurred more 
frequently a thousand years ago. The ninth 
century A.D. seems to have been a particularly 
undesirable time for residence in Japan. After 
the shock which annihilated Kyoto in 797, there 
were quakes of scarcely less intensity in 818, 
827, 830, 841, 850, 856, 857, 864, 868, 869, 
and ^']'] . Several of these were accompanied 
by tidal waves, and two, at least, synchronized 
with great volcanic eruptions — at B'andaisan 
(841) and Fujiyama (868). One of the earliest 
on record, and probably the most destructive 
of all, so far as the surface of the country is 
concerned, was that which devastated Southern 
Shikoku in 604 A.D. On that occasion a strip 
of coast over a million acres in extent disappeared 
bodily into the sea. Among cities, Kyoto and 
Tokyo have suffered most. Yedo, as it was 
then, has twice been laid in ruins. Japanese 
authorities put the mortality in the one case 
(1703) at 200,000, in the other (1855) at 
100,000; but these figures must be received 
with caution. On both occasions winter added 
its rigours to the scene. Fires starting in all 
parts of the city turned night into day and 



200 



Earthquakes 



completed the work of destruction. After-shocks 
constituted a feature of these, as they do of all 
great, earthquakes. Recurring at intervals of a 
few hours, they continued sometimes for a month, 
to the number of a hundred or more, keeping 
alive the terror of the inhabitants. The same 
phenomenon characterized the very violent 
quake of 1891, in the Gifu district. Palpable 
" echoes " of the main shock continued for six 
weeks, and the seismograph recorded 4,000, 
spread over the space of ten years. While the 
tale of disastrous earthquakes is not what it was, 
shocks are still numerous enough. Since the 
systematic observation of seismic phenomena was 
commenced in the early eighties, the average 
of earthquakes perceptible without the aid of 
instruments has worked out at well over 1,000 
per annum for the whole Empire. For Tokyo 
alone the average is two earthquakes a week. 
Scientists take comfort in the number of these 
small shocks, just as they do in the frequency 
of volcanic explosions on a small scale. The 
former imply a gradual settling of the strata 
into a state of equilibrium not easily upset by 
ordinary movements ; the latter involve a gradual 
dissipation of subterranean energy which, - if 
suffered to accumulate, would spell disaster. 

Observation of the direction followed by the 
seismic waves which traverse Japan shows that 
the great majority of them have their origin in 

201 



Japan's Inheritance 



the Pacific, not far from the Japanese coast. 
The gradient of the slope from the crest of the 
Japanese anticline towards the ocean-bed, 
namely, i in 25 — as compared, for example, with 
the I in 200 off the eastern coast of South 
America — makes it one of the steepest on the 
face of the globe. Its total vertical height of 
40,000 feet — from the summit of the Hondo 
highlands to the depths of the Tuscarora — renders 
it at the same time one of the highest. 'Here we 
have the prime cause of Japan's multitudinous 
quakes. For, as Dr. Knott puts it, an earth- 
quake is " a yielding to stress " — that is to say, 
a point is reached at which rock -beds subjected 
to enormous thrust-pressure suddenly give way. 
This fracture sets in motion horizontal " earth- 
waves " ; and, if it be accompanied by much 
displacement or subsidence of rock-masses, ver- 
tical motion of a jolting or jarring sort is set up, 
adding greatly to the dangerous character of the 
disturbance. A shock whose amplitude — that is, 
say, the extent of its back-and-forth horizontal 
motion — attains one inch, is sufficient to bring 
down any but the strongest buildings, while a 
vertical movement of the twentieth part of an 
inch is equally dangerous. The great Gifu 
earthquake, which had its origin in a huge fault 
or fracture, probably at a considerable depth, 
extended to the actual surface, where it formed 
a scarp 20 feet in vertical height and 50 miles 

202 



Earthquakes 

in length. The amplitude of the shock was 
estimated to have been from' 9 inches to a 
foot. Professor Omori, of Tokyo, attributes the 
proportionately low mortality (7,000), as com- 
pared with that of ,the Messina earthquake of 
December, 1908 — which, judged by movement, 
was less severe — to the fact that the Japanese 
buildings, being of light construction, caused less 
damage by their fall. 

The position and conformation of the Japanese 
island-arc renders it a " seismically sensitive " 
region. The strata of its anticline, under 
enormous pressure, are known to be slowly rising 
on the one side and sinking on the other, as the 
result of secular movement. In them, there- 
fore, there is liable to occur, on comparatively 
slight provocation, that sudden yielding to stress 
which means an earthquake. The causes which 
may constitute that slight provocation may be 
either : ( i ) tidal stresses ; ( 2 ) the gravitational 
influence of the sun, moon, or other planetary 
bodies acting in conjunction with them; (3) 
modification of surface stresses as the result of 
accumulation of snow, rainfall, and of con- 
sequent denudation and transportation of 
material; (4) the long-period oscillation of 
the earth's crust due to variations of baro- 
metric pressure. Any one of these may be 
the " last straw " which breaks the back of 
the overstrained anticline. In Japan's case, 

203 



Japan's Inheritance 



the last two causes assume special import- 
ance. The heavy annual snowfall on one 
side of the Japanese ridge, and the prevalence 
of a high barometric pressure on the other, are 
sufficient in themselves to account for the winter 
frequency of earthquakes in Japan. Observa- 
tions have proved, on the one hand, that the 
number of shocks actually varies with the amount 
of the snowfall ; and, on the other, that earth- 
quakes are usually followed by a lowering of 
barometric pressure, accompanied by rain. Con- 
sequently the period mid-November to end of 
December, when these conditions come into play, 
and that from the middle of March to the middle 
of April, when the operation is reversed, are 
the times when Japan as ,a whole is more 
susceptible to earthquake shocks. In practice, 
moreover, it has been found that certain parts 
of Japan are more liable to earthquakes than 
others. Two lines of seismic activity intersect 
a little to the north-west of Tokyo Bay. It 
will readily be understood that by precise defini- 
tion of these localities, study of periodicity of 
earthquake movements, calculation of the dates 
of maximum terrestrial stress, and, finally, by 
the detection of preliminary shocks with the aid 
of instruments, a fair approach to the prediction 
of earthquakes can be made. Cases of success- 
ful forecasts are, indeed, on record — notably 

Omori's prediction of the great Formosan earth- 

204 



Earthquakes 



quake of 1906, and the calculation by an 
American seismologist of December 28, 1908 
— the date of the Messina catastrophe — as " a 
probable earthquake date." An attempt at what 
might be called long-period prediction has also 
been made by the Japanese expert. Observing 
that Japan forms the meeting-place of two great 
earthquake zones — the Eurasian, extending from 
the Mediterranean by way of Turkestan and the 
'Himalaya to Formosa, and the Americo -Pacific, 
extending from the Aleutian Islands along the 
western coast of the New World — and observing 
also that both these zones have within recent 
years been simultaneously shaken by a number 
of great shocks, while the Japanese islands have 
escaped, Professor Omori infers that the earth 
stresses have been shifted from the North Pacific 
link between the two zones to the arcs of the 
zones themselves, and that in consequence the 
Japanese islands will be free from any disastrous 
shocks for " some dozens of years to come." 
We shall see ! 

Some twenty years ago the Japanese house 
was labelled " the offspring of the earthquake." 
The idea was plausible, the phrase picturesque, 
the manner appropriately dogmatic — so the label 
remained. As a little reflection will show, other 
considerations have had as much, or more, to 
do with the evolution of the Japanese house. 
Cheapness and the character of the materials 

20c; 



Japan's Inheritance 

available are among the chief. Soft wood and 
the accommodating bamboo lay ready to hand 
in abundance ; why quarry the hills for stone ? 
No doubt, if the rugged slopes of Shantung or 
Korea (where there are no earthquakes) were 
profusely wooded, we should there find airy 
structures of wood and paper instead of hovels 
of rock and mud. The artistic temperament of 
the Japanese, which prefers the light and 
" natty " to the solid and ponderous, as well as 
their proverbial passion for light and air, have 
also played a part in fixing the style of their 
domestic architecture. Certainly it is not regard 
for the earthquake that makes the Japanese 
builder put a preposterously heavy roof of tiles 
upon his " wicker-basket " of a house. Unless, 
indeed, he wishes to ensure being killed outright, 
when the crisis comes, instead of merely bruised 
or maimed ! Nor would it permit him to add 
one or two stories to the one-floored " offspring " 
— which he frequently does. Then again, as a 
destroyer of Japanese dwelling-places, the fire- 
fiend is far worse than the seismic wave. Once 
in twenty years, perhaps, a destructive earth- 
quake brings down 10,000 houses. But five 
times that number are destroyed every year by 
fires. If the style and pattern of the Japanese 
house were dictated by external dangers, this 
highly practical people would long ago have hit 
upon some better medium than paper stretched 

206 



Earthquakes 

on wooden frames. They would, in other words, 
have fought the fire rather than the earthquake. 
Finally, large sections of the country — notably 
on the western slope — are unaffected by these 
shocks, yet there, as elsewhere, the " offspring 
of the earthquake " flourishes, and has from the 
beginning. 

The fact of the matter is that the Japanese 
house provides no better refuge in a really severe 
earthquake than any other type of building. 
Indeed, a two-storied Japanese house with heavy 
tiled roof is about as bad a place as one could 
be in. Where the Japanese building scores is 
that all the varying degrees of shock, up to 
the really dangerous, fail to leave their mark 
upon it. No weakened foundations, tottering 
chimneys, cracked walls, or pendulous plaster 
remain to haunt the tenant's mind. To all the 
minor movements, the non-rigid, unstrutted 
framework of the Japanese building yields ; like 
the reed before the wind, it bends, and so is 
saved from breaking. But when the visitation 
looks to be catastrophic, your good Japanese will 
take to the street and leave the offspring of the 
earthquake to be devoured by its ov/n parent. 
And small blame to him I 

In another earthquake-infested region — that of 
Guatemala — a primitive and inexpensive type of 
building has been evolved by the natives, and is 

thus described by Mr. W. S. Ascoli : "Stout 

207 



Japan's Inheritance 

wooden uprights are driven into the ground at 
intervals along the proposed walls. These posts 
are then bound together by thin laths of strong, 
flexible wood, running horizontally, and securely 
fastened by palm-fibre, thereby forming a 
skeleton wall. Sometimes, for greater rigidity, 
additional laths, running diagonally, are added. 
This is then filled up with slabs of ' adobe,' or 
baked earth. The surface can then be covered 
with stucco and whitewashed." While the 
framework of such a house has the advantage 
of elasticity, the great objection would be the 
crumbling of the walls after any severe shock. 
Professor Milne's recipe for a safe house in an 
earthquake country is " a one-storied, strongly 
framed timber house, with a light, flattish roof 
made of shingles or sheet-iron, the whole rest- 
ing on a quantity of small cast-iron balls, carried 
on flat plates bedded in the foundations." It 
is to be feared that these precepts are seldom 
followed, even in the case of private houses, 
and when the visitor who has heard piuch of 
" the offspring of the earthquake " contemplates 
the huge brick-and-stone structures which have 
sprung up on the " made " ground about Hibiya 
Park, in the centre of Tokyo, he will be at a 
loss whether to admire more this defi-ance of 
the earthquake or the readiness with which the 
Japanese adapt themselves to the demands of 
modern civilization, earthquakes notwithstanding. 

208 



CHAPTER XI 
THE SPAS OF JAPAN 

A volcanic legacy — Composition and distribution — Legendary 
use and origin — A much-prized boon — Conventions at 
a discount — The question of temperature — Fashionable 
spas — Classification of the waters — Chalybeate springs 
— Seaside spas — Bathing au grand sirieux — Boiling 
pools for suicides—" Hells " in an Eden — A typical 
mountain- spa ^ 

Not the least of the legacies bequeathed by 
volcanic force to the land of Yamato is the 
mineral spa. Hot springs enrich most of the 
highland districts. Without being confined to 
the interior, they issue, as a rule, at heights 
varying from i,ooo to 4,000 feet above sea- 
level, often amid the most romantic surround- 
ings. Sometimes they emerge on the sea-shore 
— the steam of the spring mingling, literally, with 
the surf of the breakers. Generally speaking, 
these " mountain v^^aters " — as the Japanese call 
them — issue from the base of extinct or quiescent 
cones. One of the symptoms of declining sub- 

209 O 



Japan's Inheritance 



terranean energy is the solfatara. The thermal 
spring is its almost invariable concomitant. It 
is the gift of the volcano that is marked to die. 

Some writers have maintained that most of 
the mineral springs in Japan are indifferent in 
composition and show no connection with the 
volcanic areas. Recent research leads to the 
opposite conclusion. All the recognized varieties 
— alkaline, acid, saline, chalybeate — are repre- 
sented. Over and above these a large number 
contain sulphur in one form or another. The 
presence of sulphuretted hydrogen in greater or 
lesser quantity is indicated by its characteristic 
odour ; sulphur dioxide gives rise to deposition 
of sulphur, called by the Japanese ya-bana, 
while the trioxide gives rise to the presence of 
free sulphuric acid in the water. As to the dis- 
tribution of the springs, the only notable ones 
issuing in a non -volcanic district are those of 
Arima, in Settsu, and two or three in the Kii 
Peninsula. The rest, without exception, are so 
obviously connected with one or other of the 
volcanic zones that to dissociate them from their 
common source would be, as it were, to put 
asunder those whom Nature hath joined. 

Many of the Japanese spas are of great 
antiquity. Legend has busied itself both with 
their origin and their use. Judged by the 
test, the oldest baths in Japan are those of 
Dogo, in north-western Shikoku. Here Onamuji, 

210 



The Spas of Japan 



who, as directly descended from Susano-o, " the 
Impetuous Male," ranks as one of the aboriginal 
deities of Idzumo, Sukuno-bikona, his diminu- 
tive coadjutor, and five of the legendary Mikados, 
including the famous Jimmu Tenno, disported 
themselves in the slightly sulphurous waters. 
The baths of Nasu, in Northern Japan, became 
famous in the Jomei era (629-641 A.D.), and 
those of Kinosaki, in Western Japan, date from 
the sixth century. The principal spring at the 
latter place, so the story goes, owes its discovery 
to the prescience of a stork. For several days 
in succession the bird, suffering apparently from 
pain in its legs, was observed by a peasant to 
visit the same spot and scrape a hole for itself 
in the ground. The malady with which it was 
afflicted abated, and at length the stork flew 
away cured. On this the peasant examined the 
place and found a mineral spring, over which, 
with the aid of his neighbours, he built a 
bathing -hut. 

By a people with whom bathing is the gratide 
passion the boon of mineral waters is highly 
prized. In Japanese eyes the summer resort 
without a hot spring is nothing worth. Holiday- 
making Japanese do not flock to the seaside — 
unless, indeed, they happen to be within easy 
reach of a " marine spa " like Atami, in Izu, 
or Beppu, in the far south. For this reason, too, 
resorts most popular among foreigners — such as 

211 



Japan's Inheritance 



Karuizawa, in Central Japan, and the village of 
Hakone, on the lake of the same name — are not 
much patronized by the Japanese. Even Nikko, 
with them, is less a holiday resort than a place 
of pilgrimage. On the other hand, the seques- 
tered onsen — the hotter the better — is thronged 
throughout the season. The approach may be 
toilsome, the accommodation poor ; but these 
are of secondary importance : the bathing is the 
thing. Dozens of folk of all sorts and conditions 
— young men and maidens, old men and children, 
pilgrims, students, sufferers from life's ills — will 
pack into a third-rate hotel, covering the musty 
tataml like leaves in Vallombrosa, rather than 
forego their midsummer soak. Is it not on 
record that a miserable hut, 5,000 feet up on 
the flank of Bandaisan, was harbouring a score 
of souls when the great eruption took place? 

Recourse to a " cure " in the Western world 
is costly. The thermal waters, captured for 
exploitation by a syndicate, are encased in a 
pump-room, or a kursaal, and society flocking 
thereto is forced to keep up the conventions and 
artificialities of everyday life. In Japan the 
presence of the hot spring is seldom marked by 
anything more than a foliage-embowered collec- 
tion of rough huts, above whose shingle roofs 
float wreaths of steam and sulphurous vapour. 
Usually the large wooden tanks which constitute 
the baths themselves — often with little more than 

212 





GENESIS OF A MOUNTAIN SPA : NOBORIBETSU. 

In the foreground, the crater; beyond, the solfataras ; in 
the distance, the roofs of the village. 




ASHINOYU SPA : HAKOXE. 

On the flank of an extinct cone (Fntagoyama). Below, to the left, lies the Lake of Hakone. 

To face p. 21 



The Spas of Japan 

a roof for shelter — are free to every passer-by. 
In remoter regions, despite the efforts of official- 
dom to quench it, a state of almost idyllic 
naturalness prevails. The degree of civilization 
attained at a spa may, in fact, be gauged by 
the customs pursued. While in more enlightened 
places wooden partitions have been put up, on 
one side of which is written " ladies," on the 
other " gentlemen," in others a bamboo-pole laid 
across the water answers the same purpose. In 
others, again, no pretence at division is made. 
Promiscuous bathing of the sexes proceeds as 
from time immemorial and without offence. 
Sometimes the waters are taken at fresco. A 
favourite process, after a preliminary soak, is 
to stand at the foot of an open bank or wall 
and receive from overhead — conveyed thither in 
bamboo-pipes — a small cascade, hot to a degree, 
but highly invigorating. " The great drawback 
to a stay at one of these places," naively remarks 
a well-known handbook, " is the danger of meet- 
ing naked bathers." Possibly; but any one 
who wishes to avoid this peril can easily do 
so. He has only to approach this rural 
Gomorrah in the company of the local junsa 
(policeman). Conceivably, he may catch 
glimpses of discarded garments hastily donned 
behind some friendly corner, and of nude figures 
surreptitiously betaking themselves to their 
proper compartments ; but, beyond that, his 

213 



Japan's Inheritance 

Occidental sense of propriety will suffer no 
irreparable shock. 

The temperature of the bath is an important 
point. Your Japanese likes not the cold tub. 
To him the " hot " bath, as understood in this 
country, would be rtaroi (lukewarm). Medical 
men in Western countries discourage the taking 
of baths the temperature of which exceeds to 
any appreciable extent that of the body — a more 
than probable explanation of the fact that so 
many people take cold after a " hot " bath. With 
the Japanese a favourite temperature is 1 1 o° to 
115" E. After a half -hour's soak in water of 
that heat, bathers will sally forth on a freezing 
night clad in a thin kimono, or even the spare 
fandoshi (loin-cloth), and walk scatheless to their 
homes. 

Of the alkaline waters, the best known are 
those of Atami and Shuzenji — ^^the one on the 
coast, the other in the interior, of the Izu Penin- 
sula ; Ikao, in Central Japan ; Shiobara, on the 
flanks of the Hondo anticline ; and Shibu, in 
the Shinano Valley, on the western slope. 
Shiobara, with numerous springs set apart 
for rich folk and poor respectively, is one of 
the most fashionable of Japanese spas, and has 
been patronized of late years by members of the 
Imperial Family. There are baths here for all 
grades of society, just as, at a Kyushu spa, 
the tanks are labelled first, second, and third 

214 



The Spas of Japan 



class. At Shuzenji one of the springs emerges 
in the bed of a river. To reach the super- 
structure of a bath-house in midstream bathers 
have " to walk the plank." A special distinc- 
tion is conferred on Atami by a powerful inter- 
mittent geyser, which discharges at intervals of 
four to six hours for half an hour at a time. 
Should it fail to explode at the proper time — 
which it sometimes does — there is consternation 
in the village. For the geyser is the making 
of the place, and to lose the many pulmonary 
patients who come hither in winter would mean 
disaster. 

The four main islands of Japan are said to 
contain well over four hundred mineral springs, 
classified as saline, alkaline, chalybeate and in- 
different, or pure. Some of the saline or chaly- 
beate springs contain, in addition, an appreciable 
amount of sulphur. At Kusatsu, in Central, and 
at Nasu, in Northern, Japan, owing to the 
presence of free sulphuric acid, the waters are 
classed as " acid." At the point of emergence 
the quantity of sulphur in solution is sufficient 
to give them a milky colour ; but, in their further 
progress, some of this mineral is deposited, iron 
and other constituents are taken up in exchange, 
and the temperature falls. Similarly, in the 
Hakone district, the highest springs — those at 
Ashinoyu (2,800 feet) — are stronger and hotter 
than those of Miyanoshita, three miles down the 

215 



Japan's Inheritance 

valley. By the time the waters reach Yumoto, 

four miles farther on, their temperature has fallen 

to 1 00°, and they are indifferent. 

Of the spas which lie west of the great 

meridional range, Arima, in Settsu, some fifteen 

miles north of Kobe, is the most frequented. 

This is one of Japan's best chalybeate springs. 

Analyses of its waters show one litre to contain 
1 4' 7 grammes of sodium chloride, 1*28 of 

potassium oxide, 2*9 of calcium, and 0*24 of 

magnesium, with 0*246 of peroxide of iron. 
Deposits froni one of the springs at the base 

of Hakusan are strongly impregnated with iron, 
and find a ready sale as yuhana on that account. 
At Yumomine, in Ise, the waters gush out in 
the midst of the village at a temperature of 
200° F., and — the presence of sulphur notwith- 
standing — are used by the women of the place 
to cook their vegetables. Visitors make a 
practice of leaving teapots, etc., to be encrusted 
with the mineral ; and the principal image in 
the adjoining temple is fashioned from a stone 
thus adorned. As examples of the alkaline - 
chalybeate type may be mentioned the hot spring 
of Oshiu, near Wakamatsu, and a cold spring 
at Arima, the ferrous compound being associated 
in each case with bicarbonate of soda. All the 
springs of this class contain an appreciable 
amount of carbonic acid gas, but that of 
Takaradzuka, near Kobe — a cold spring — is 
particularly rich in this constituent, and 

216 




AN ALFRESCO " SHOWER " : NOBORIBETSU. 

The hot water is conveyed from the springs in 
bamboo pipes. 




BATH-HOUSE IN MID-STREAM : SHUZENJI, IZU. 
The hot springs emerge in the river-bed, and are reached by means of a plank bridge. 



To face p. 216. 



The Spas of Japan 



makes a most palatable table-water, known 
as tansan. 

It is not always the fate of the hot springs 
born of Japanese volcanoes to be harnessed in 
bamboo-pipes or gathered into public bathing- 
tanks. At the base of the island-volcano of 
Sakurajima, which rears its seared and imposing 
form out of the deep waters of Kagoshima Bay- 
to a height of 3,500 feet, the thermal waters 
find their way out on a sandy beach, secluded 
from all winds save the south. The inhabitants 
of the neighbouring village can therefore pass 
from a hot -spring bath — made by the simple 
process of hollowing out a place in the sand — 
into the more vigorous embrace of the sea, and 
vice versa. Even in mid-winter, when the sun, 
as a rule, shines genially from a cloudless sky, 
the children of Arimura may be seen disporting 
themselves on the steaming shore or soaking 
to their chins in a sand-bath within a few feet of 
the icy spray of the breakers. 

For baths on a big scale one must go to 
Beppu, a seaside spa, or to Kusatsu, one of the 
coolest of Japanese summer resorts, nearly 
4,000 feet above sea-level. At the former place 
the public baths accommodate eight hundred 
people in two huge sheds. Formalities depend- 
ing upon sex are entirely dispensed with. The 
tanks, sunk into the ground, are arranged in 
strengths to suit the various diseases of the 

patients, who are warned " not to kill the ox 

217 



Japan's Inheritance 



while straightening the horns ''—i.e., not to sacri- 
fice their constitutions for the sake of a local 
affection. On the beach are baths more public 
still. During the season, which is early spring, 
the foreshore at midday is studded with human 
heads, the bodies appertaining to which are 
being steamed below the surface. Dozens of 
springs, alkaline, ferruginous, and strongly 
charged with carbonic acid gas, percolate sea- 
wards through the sand. Nor is there any 
failure in point of temperature, for that varies 
from I io° to 132° fl. 

At Kusatsu, high on the flank of the vener- 
able Shiranesan (White Mountain), in the West 
Central District, bathing is pursued aa grand 
serieax. Therapeutics, not pleasure, is the end 
in view. Here the waters, with a temperature 
ranging up to 128° F., are sharpened by an 
appreciable percentage of free sulphuric acid, 
and contain, in addition, traces of iron and 
arsenic. They possess special efficacy for gout, 
rheumatism, and all manner of skin diseases, in- 
cluding leprosy and syphilis. Such is the torture 
inflicted in cases of cutaneous affections that the 
patients submit to a species of drill, under a 
bath-master, who keeps time for them, and sees 
that each pours upon his head 250 dippers — the 
regulation number — of the scalding water to pre- 
vent congestion. Sufferers in an advanced stage 
are allowed to swathe their wounds in cotton- 
wool — no mean concession when it is remem- 

218 



The Spas of Japan 



bered that the period of immersion lasts three 
or four minutes. A course at Kusatsu involves 
the taking of 120 of these baths, spread over 
a month, after which the patient proceeds to 
Shibu, on the farther side of the range, or to 
some other spa where the waters are soft. 

Japan's pure or indifferent springs are found 
to possess a roughly uniform temperature, 100° 
to 105° Fj., which suggests that they originate 
in strata of similar composition — probably the 
fundamental schists — or from a uniform depth. 
On the other hand, the sulphur springs show 
every variety of temperature up to the boiling 
of the jigoka ("hells "). Many of them issue 
directly, in surface -streams, from ancient 
breached craters, which, despite their decrepi- 
tude, present scenes of the liveliest activity. The 
Ojigoku ("Big Hell ") of Tateyama, on the 
north-western flank of the Hida-Etchu range, 
includes a pool, 150 feet across, in a state of 
violent ebullition. On its banks quantities of 
sulphur are continually being deposited. Some 
of the solfataras have received fanciful names. 
The boiling pools of Unzen, in Kyushu, the 
fiercest of which contains a geyser, is called 
the " Pool of Loud Wailing." In the Tonami 
Peninsula, which forms the northern extremity 
of Hondo, a group of boiling springs lies cheek- 
by-jowl with a placid crater-lake on the hollow 

breast of a peak known as " the Mountain of 

219 



Japan's Inheritance 



Dread." Such places as these — and, in parti- 
cular, a deep green pond called the " Sea of 
'Hell," near Beppu, which, for all its heat, 
preserves an uncanny stillness — have often been 
profaned by suicide. 

Perhaps the most striking feature of these 
solfatara-spas is the amazing verdure which 
surrounds them. Roaring, bubbling, hissing 
cauldrons are hedged about with virgin forests. 
Up to these slope stark, scarred cliffs, stained 
red, yellow, white ; into them fades the steam 
of innumerable geysers and fumaroles, surging 
from a floor in many parts of which it would 
be death to walk. The tout ensemble is start- 
ling ; the effect most weird. Such a scene may 
be witnessed at or near the base of several of 
Japan's played-out volcanoes, but nowhere to 
better advantage than at Nobori-b'etsu, in the 
Hokkaido. There, at an elevation of i,ooo feet, 
the noise of the Pacific breakers might be heard, 
were it not for the ceaseless din near by. The 
source thereof is a huge double crater, each of 
its divisions a third of a mile in diameter. On 
the one side steaming water overflows out of 
boiling lakes into a trackless forest ; on the other 
into the inns and bath-houses of a thrice-blessed 
village. The craters resound with the wild com- 
motion of a score of " hells," fumaroles, and 
fountains of boiling water. But the whole 
inferno is girt about with richest green. The 

220 



The Spas of Japan 



very ridge dividing it in twain, crowned in part 
with densest foliage, carries a fearsome pit, 
JO feet long, filled with rolling, seething mud. 

Of a very different type, the little onsen of 
Eino lies high on the flank of Kirishima, in 
Southern Kyushu. To reach it neither basha 
nor jinrlkisha avails. He who would know this 
choicest of Japanese mountain spas must needs 
climb . The range which marks the route begins, 
continues, and ends with craters, domes, and 
peaks. But for the occasional glimpse of a 
majestic cone, with a mass of vapour swelling 
from its crest, the densely wooded flanks might 
be those of Vosges or Malverns — magnified, and 
with a greater wealth of foliage. A picturesque 
village nestles at its southern extremity ; but 
the prudent traveller, seeing that this is one of 
the haunts favoured of pilgrims, will push on 
to the little spa whose waters come direct from 
the bowels of the mountain instead of from the 
bathroom boiler. 

So on the occasion of a visit in the autumn 
of 1907 neither my friend (who, doing "the 
grand tour," was new to the country) nor myself 
surrendered to the blandishments of a well- 
favoured nesan (waitress) at the inn near the 
temple, who proffered green tea for our delec- 
tation. The deep tones of the temple bell sound- 
ing the vesper hour reached us out on the hjll- 
side as the cryptomeria groves which hid the 

221 



Japan's Inheritance 



village were fading into the distance. To the 
right, for 2,000 feet, rose the bold shoulder of 
the range. To the left, as many feet below, 
lay the outspread plain. Lava and tuff were 
the hillocks and ridges that diversified its 
surface ; lava and tuff were the beds of its 
streams and meres. But over all, as upon the 
slopes above, lay a mantle of Eden -like fer- 
tility. The very craters along the summit -line 
were silent, cold, and lake-filled : while the bene- 
ficent waters for which we were heading issued 
from beneath the greatest and deadest of 
them all. 

For two hours our ninsoka (coolie) stolidly 
led the way, looking neither to right nor left. 
Now some projecting spur of the range had to 
be negotiated, now some densely wooded rift ; 
but always, on the whole, the path ascended. 
At length, on rounding a bolder bluff than any 
yet encountered, there came into view a stately 
gorge, which reached the very heart of the range . 
Woods that might have passed for primeval lined 
its steep sides. Into it, out of the west, poured 
the level rays of the sun, turning to flame the 
glassed-in fronts of a little cluster of " toy " 
houses daintily set upon a platform at its head. 
From between the shingle roofs floated tiny 
wreaths of vapour, showing white against the 
dark background of foliage before they vanished 
into the twilight air. 

223 



The Spas of Japan 



In this sequestered gorge the junsa ceased 
from troubUng. So about the open tanks, with 
their greenish steaming water and yabana, 
bathers of both sexes and of all ages were 
scrubbing themselves on the sloping floors, soak- 
ing to the neck, or taking the " shower " on a 
rocky ledge well supplied with descending 
streams . 

Nightfall, following hard on the gloaming, 
found us established in a soft-matted, paper- 
walled room, which was Elysium to our way- 
worn frames. It had been assumed, as a matter 
of course, that we would take the water while 
sustenance was in preparation for the inner 
man. A few minutes later — their travel-stained 
garments replaced by the yakata ^ — the " honour- 
able foreigners " were (like the rest of the 
population) up to their necks in water of a tem- 
perature undreamed of at home, responding as 
best they could to the courteous inquiries of a 
venerable old man on the one hand, and a 
charming daughter of the soil on the other, as 
to their age, nationality, business, past history, 
and intentions for the immediate future. 

This ordeal ended, we removed our parboiled 
bodies to the cool seclusion of the straw-and- 
paper zasshlki, where a repast had been pre- 
pared, in which raw fish, fried chicken, and egg- 
soup formed the major items. Sake and 

^ A thin crepe kimono used in going to and from the 
bath. 

223 



Japan's Inheritance 

cigarettes followed, until the nesans invaded the 
apartment to prepare the beds. Had four deal 
planks been piled upon the tataml for a resting- 
place, instead of as many wadded quilts, we 
would have slumbered and slept. The " moun- 
tain water " had charmed all weariness from our 
limbs, and repose alone was wanted to complete 
the cure. Just as this much-wished-for con- 
summation was about to be effected, a piercing 
cry, of feminine origin, fell from without upon 
our drowsy ears. My companion started to his 
feet, and, rushing to the nearest amado, un- 
barred and flung it wide. Now, the house across 
the way, it seemed, belonged to the kocho 
(village headman), who was celebrating, in an 
appropriate manner, the anniversary of some red- 
letter day in the ancestral record. To give lustre 
to the occasion, a geisha had been engaged from 
the prefectural town ; and it was her shrill nasal 
voice, rising in minor key high above the strains 
of the accompanying samisen, that had aroused 
the chivalrous instincts of my friend. A few 
moments' listening convinced him of his error. 
Disgusted', he shot the amado back into its groove 
with quite unnecessary violence, and hied him' 
without a word to his wadded quilts. Long did 
the revel last, but between the snatches of 
" song " could be heard the " soul-like sounds " 
of the encircling woods, the babbling of cold 

waters, the bubbling of the hot . 

224 



CHAPTER XII 
THE GATEWAY OF THE SOUTH 

An eventful past — Saigo's harakiri — Occidental influence — 
Kyushu and Korea — The rise of Moji — Creditable ship- 
building — Matsuri — The return of the spirits — Fantastic 
landscapes — Shimabara and its ignis fatuus — A great 
sea-loch — The Horse's Bone and the Heavenly Spear — 
Isolation ended — Tobacco culture on volcanic soil 

Kyushu, so Science tells us, was originally one 
with Hondo. An isthmus linked it to the 
Korean Peninsula, where now the shallow straits 
of Tsushima lie. Before it became one of the 
main islands of Japan — the most uneven in its 
surface, the most splintered as to its coast — it 
was the road by which the primitive forms of 
life passed eastwards from the continent. In 
the alluvial beds of Northern Kyushu, as well as 
those of Kuwanto, skeletons of elephants and 
other mammals of Indian origin have been dis- 
covered. Nor did insulation make an end of 
Kyushu's role as a half-way house. By this 

same road the civilization, the arts, the wisdom 

225 p 



Japan's Inheritance 

of the East travelled to Old Japan. Most notable 
of these invasions, and fruitful in its effects, 
was that which took place towards the close of 
the sixth century, when the arrival of many 
priests paved the way for Buddha's peaceful con- 
quest of Japan. Not only did the nation as a 
whole turn to " the Light of Asia " — which to this 
day retains its hold on all but the higher classes 
— but with these first missionaries came Chinese 
institutions of various kinds — the ideographs, the 
study of the Confucian classics, the methods of 
reckoning time — and, not least, the secrets of 
those keramic arts and industries which, persist- 
ing to the present, have made household words 
of Hizen and Satsuma. 

Kyushu has been associated with most of the 
great events of Japanese history. It was from 
the southern island that Jimmu Tenno set out to 
establish himself in Yamato. Tradition accords 
the little harbour of Mimitsu, in Hyuga, the dis- 
tinction of being the actual point of departure. 
In its turn, too, the southern island was the sally- 
port whence warlike expeditions like those of 
the half-mythical Empress Jingo in the second 
century and of Hideyoshi in the fourteenth — not 
to mention quite recent excursions — were 
launched against the adjacent parts of Asia. It 
was off the north-western coast of Kyushu that 
Japan met and defeated her Armada — the fleet 

of the formidable Kublai Khan — just three 

226 



The Gateway of the South 

hundred years before England repulsed a similar 
attack upon her liberties. The annihilation of 
that Mongol host — aided, it is said, by a divinely 
prepared storm — gave undying lustre to the name 
of Ho jo Tokumine. In more recent times, it 
was from the southern port of Sasebo that the 
invincible Togo set out to do battle with the 
Russian fleet, almost within sight of the bold 
headlands of Hizen. 

The sympathetic attitude of the people of 
Kyushu towards foreign influences has not 
deprived them of independence or of indi- 
viduality. When, in the Meiji era, Eastern Japan 
became the main channel for external influ- 
ences — Occidental now, not Asiatic— there was a 
tendency to leave the men of the south on one 
side. The resentment thus aroused led to the 
outbreak against the Imperial authority known 
as the Satsuma Rebellion. The bullet-marked 
walls of Kagoshima Castle, where Saigo Taka- 
mori performed haraklri when all was lost, are 
the last evidences of internecine strife in Japan. 

Occidental influences likewise came first to 
Kyushu — and never left it. Portuguese priests 
and traders arrived in the middle of the sixteenth 
century ; after them, the Spaniards, and then 
the Dutch. Here the earliest seeds of Chris- 
tianity were sown, to bear, within a century, a 
bitter harvest. Some imprudence on the part of 
the padres, much prejudice on the part of the 

227 



Japan's Inheritance 



Shogunate — and there ensued the terrible scenes 
at Amakusa, Shima, and Takaboko (Pappen- 
burg), where in all a hundred thousand Japanese 
converts to Christianity, refusing to trample on 
the Cross, proved " faithful unto death." But 
there were places, such as Urakami, where the 
Roman Catholic Church kept green the memory 
of St. Francis Xavier, and can show an unbroken 
record from 1542 to the present day. All 
foreigners were driven from the country, save 
a small colony of Dutch traders, who remained 
on sufferance at Deshima, Nagasaki's island- 
suburb, and for two and a half centuries lyoyasu 
and his successors cut Japan off from the outside 
world. 

To some extent, in her own island-story, 
Kyushu has shared the fortunes of the neigh- 
bouring continental States. When, in our 
Middle Ages, Korea reached her zenith as a 
civilized nation, Kyushu profited thereby. The 
decrepit state into which the peninsula had 
fallen, in recent times, undoubtedly reacted upon 
Kyushu. With some confidence, therefore, we 
may expect the resuscitation of the Hermit King- 
dom under Japanese guidance to enure to the 
good of Nine-Province-Island. The nearness of 
Kyushu with respect to the continent has given 
it an eventful past ; now that the remotest ex- 
tremity of the island has been brought into touch 
with the current of world-travel, that position 

228 



The Gateway of the South 




Korean (-%sr)ANj> manchuriam o^rajuways. 

l.CR. Irn^>€Vixl C'KiTi*se RailwAy, C.E.R. C}vl>^♦S« Eas^trn, 
ccn/AM^lvn^ ".t HarlnnCJi) wilH T.S,R.,Tvans-SiTa*,Yia'rt.. 

■R RycJunCfott' A-rtWr)-, W, V/ei-Tiai- wei •, H,, ki«o-c'K{.-H . 

promises no less to give it a future. True, to join 
the Korean railway system, the steam-packet 
leaves Shimonoseki — and this, being on the north 

229 



Japan's Inheritance 

side of the tortuous channel, is not in Kyushu. 
But the strait is only three-quarters of a mile 
wide, and steam -ferries plough its waters from 
mom to dewy eve. So that Moji and Shimono- 
seki are very much the same thing ! To Fusan, 
across the ample but shallow Tsushima Straits, 
is a journey comparable with that from Plymouth 
to Cherbourg — a matter of ten hours in modern 
paquehots. Of the three ways of reaching 
Harbin, on the Trans-Siberian system, from 
Japan, this offers the shortest sea -passage. Now 
that the 3,000-feet bridge over the Yalu at New 
Wiju is completed, one may travel without change 
from Fusan to Chang-chun, where Japanese 
control of the Manchurian railway ends. This 
has been rendered possible by the enterprise of 
the South Manchurian Railway Company in con- 
verting the narrow-gauge Antung-Mukden line, 
built originally for military purposes, into a sub- 
stantial 4 feet Z\ inch road, at a cost of two and 
a half millions sterling. The policy of the Tokyo 
authorities is to encourage passenger traffic 
through Chosen, while developing freight - 
work on the Dairen route. With this end in 
view, passenger fares on the former line are kept 
at a moderate figure, but freight rates average 
four times those on the South Manchurian line. 
In mileage the Tsuruga-Vladivostock-Harbin 
route has the advantage — with, roughly, 
950 miles as against 1,200; but the Fusan.- 

230 



The Gateway of the South 

Mukden route, thanks to the short sea-passage, 
has an advantage, in time, of half a day. 

Recent years have witnessed a shifting of the 
centre of gravity from the southern to the 
northern end of the island. The loss of trade 
suffered by Nagasaki in the sequel of the Russian 
War and the successful working of coal-measures 
on the northern flank of the Tsukushi range 
were mainly responsible for the change. At 
Moji may now be witnessed scenes which used 
to be specially associated with Nagasaki — gangs 
of young women stripped to the waist doing the 
active part of the operation of " coal ship " by 
passing the light wicker-baskets from hand to 
hand with marvelloius deftness. The record far 
exceeds any established in the Royal Navy — it is 
1,200 tons in 3I hours. Often the operation is 
carried out by night, with the aid of naphtha 
flares, when it seems weirder still. 

This is not to say, of course, that the coal- 
measures of Takashima are played out, or that 
Nagasaki, depending thereon, is on the verge 
of extinction. The largest of Japanese ship- 
building yards — the Mitsubishi— is here. A port 
that can turn out so fine a specimen of marine 
architecture as the Chiyo Mara— 3. turbine steamer 
of 14,000 tons — is still very much alive. The 
predecessor and sister of the Chiyo — the Tenyo 
Mara — indeed came in for some criticism when 
she first made her bow to the Pacific trade. 

231 



Japan's Inheritance 

" Too much top -hamper " was the charge, and 
the " old hands " called her sea -worthiness in 
question. The criticism was treated with respect. 
The superstructure was lightened, a few feet 
taken off her funnels, and the Tetiyo, riding more 
easily, is no longer the source of qualms. 

At Nagasaki may be seen to the best advan- 
tage one of the most charming and characteristic 
features of Japanese life — the yearly festivals, 
or matsuri. Some are peculiar to the city ; others 
are celebrated here with special elaboration, cere- 
monial or gusto, as the case may be. On the 
occasion of the Suwa-no-Matsuri, in honour of 
the gods of the Shinto Suwa temple, the entire 
population gives itself up to festivity for three 
days (October 7th to 9th) — the orthodox period 
for a "great" festival. Even the Yoshiwara 
wards are represented, by geisha, in the opening 
and concluding processions, when the images of 
the gods are borne through the city in costly 
lacquered palanquins. Gaily dressed children 
take part in dances witnessed by the municipal 
and prefectural officials. The final scenes of 
the celebration are of a Bacchanalian order. Fun, 
fast and furious, gives a strange aspect to the 
temple steps. Up and down the gilded shrines 
are rushed by half -crazy devotees, till sometimes 
night is made hideous by wild riots, which end 
in severely taxing the resources of the city 
hospitals. 

232 



The Gateway of the South 

Though the Bon Matsuri is not pecuHar to 
Nagasaki, its celebration is, or was, here con- 
ducted on the most picturesque Unes. At places 
on the coast this festival is held in the middle of 
July, a month later in the interior, where the old 
Chinese calendar is still followed. The spirits 
of the dead, who at this season return to visit 
their loved ones, are believed to come over-sea. 
And when they come, they are hungry. Food is, 
therefore, the chief of the votive offerings placed 
on their last resting-place by those of the loved 
ones who are still in the flesh. Kind hands 
decorate the graves and tender hearts linger 
beside them in devotion. At night not only is 
every hill -side cemetery gay with coloured lan- 
terns, but lights are placed along the winding 
way to guide the returning spirits. As mid- 
night of the 1 5th approaches the spirits' time 
is up. With Hamlet's father they might say — 

" Mine hour is almost come 
When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames 
Must render up myself," 

were it not that Japanese creeds hold out no 
such gruesome prospects to their votaries. At 
any rate, the spirits must return to their long 
home, and the whole city turns out to give them 
a pleasant send off. Thousands of little boats 
of straw and bamboo, containing food for the 
journey and lanterns to light the way, are sent 

233 



Japan's Inheritance 



afloat from the harbour strand, to drift with their 
ghostly freight out to sea, while friends left 
behind wave farewells from the shore. 

In the case of towns situated on or near 
estuaries, the illuminated spirit -fleet is launched 
upon their current, to be carried out to sea. 
Hence the kawa-baraki (" river opening ") 
festival, which for the nonce transforms the 
strictly utilitarian Sumidagawa of Tokyo into a 
fairy scene. In the country districts dances by 
geisha take the place of the aquatic fete. It is a 
pretty idea these Matsuri embody, helping to rob 
death of some of the terrors with which Western 
civilization has enwrapped it. But it is more. 
It keeps alive the belief in ancestor-worship — 
one of the corner-stones of the Japanese polity. 
It will be a bad day for Japan when the iron 
of " rationalism " will so far have entered into 
her soul as to render these festivities things of 
the buried past . It is even a matter of regret that 
consideration for the safety of junks at anchor 
in the bay has led the authorities to inter:tere 
to some extent with the effectiveness of the 
spectacle by compelling the destruction of the 
miniature boats soon after launching. That 
the worship of ancestors is, for the Japanese, no 
empty form may be gathered from the unvary- 
ing custom of paying public homage to those 
who have fallen in battle. Immediately after 
the capture of Port Arthur, the entire army 

234 



The Gateway of the South 

attended a service of this kind, in which the 
Commander-in-chief took a leading part. In 
the following lines, contributed at the time to the 
Japan Mail, I have paraphrased the substance of 
General Nogi's Invocation to the spirits of those 
who had fallen, whether by land or on water, 
during the siege : — 

Ye spirits of the dead, whose mortal clay, 
Here on the stricken field, there in the deep 
And hollow breast of ocean, night and day. 
Dear to its country, sleeps its endless sleep. 
We give you reverence. Two hundred days 
Ye fought, and, fighting for your country, fell — 
The clash of steel, the storm's wild song of praise 
Rising o'er battle's din, your passing bell. 
But not in vain ! From radiant Eastern hills 
Your stirring deeds e'en to the sunny West 
Have spread eternal fame — these rocks and rills 
We gaze on with your blood for ever blest. 
Immortal race, extolled yet not unwept, 
Draw near us and our reverence accept. 

Kyushu can bear comparison with any of the 
other main islands in point of scenery. Materials 
ejected from volcanic vents overlie three-fourths 
of its surface. While in some places, such as 
the Osumi Province, this has given rise to a 
levelling up of large areas, in others, where 
water-erosion has had free play, landscapes of 
the most fantastic character have been fashioned 
out of deep deposits of tuff and agglomerate. 
The gorges of Yabakei, on the Takasegawa in 

235 



Japan's Inheritance 



Buzen, present, as Chamberlain points out, those 
" impossible " land-forms so often depicted in 
Chinese and Japanese works of art. The scenery 
of Takeda, farther inland, is also of a most 
romantic type. Great sheets of lava have been 
broken up into the quaintest hillocks and valleys 
lined with basaltic shafts. Over one of these 
lava sills, of considerable height, rushes a water- 
fall, which in olden days was the scene of a 
species of trial by ordeal. Prisoners believed 
guilty of the gravest crimes used to be flung 
over the precipice ; if they survived the test, they 
were pardoned. 

Kyushu's two largest sea -lochs are dominated 
by ancient volcanic piles, which, within the past 
two centuries, have been scenes of colossal and 
destructive outbreaks. From the summit of 
Unzendake (" Hot-spring Peak ") one looks upon 
a scene of extraordinary, fairy-like beauty — the 
island-studded bay of Shimabara. On the one 
flank, encircled with woods of the darkest green, 
are a " Hell " and a " Valley o,f Loud Wailing " 
— solfataras and boiling fountains which fling 
their pungent waters lo feet or more into the 
air ; on the other, a vast array of precipices 
formed in a twinkling as the result of a landslip 
induced by the eruption of 1783. But the bay 
is more than beautiful; it is mysterious. It 
boasts an ignis fatuas which so far has baffled 

investigation. Strange lights — " unknown fires " 

236 



The Gateway of the South 

the ancients called them — play upon its surface 
twice every year, in July and December, in the 
small hours of the morning. Phosphorescence 
is no doubt the cause of the phenomenon ; but 
its localization and periodicity remain to be 
accounted for. 

In the far south, Sakurajima, rising sheer out 
of the land-locked Kagoshima Gulf, presides over 
a scene where boldness is the prevailing note. 
The scarred and rugged cone, equal in height to 
Snowdon, holds two deep craters with a shallow 
depression, making a third, between them. The 
lip of the southern vent — still steaming, despite 
the grass which clings in places to its precipitous 
sides — offers a prospect ranging from the blue 
Pacific, where the shapely cone of the Satsuma 
Fuji I stands sentinel-like at the entrance of the 
gulf, to the I o-mile ridge of volcanic piles called 
the Kirishima Range, and, beyond, to the rough 
sea of mountains which fills the centre of Kyushu . 
I question whether Mother Earth has anywhere 
a finer combination of land and sea scapes than 
this prospect from Sakurajima's splintered 
crest. 

Thirty years ago Asosan was the only active 
volcano in Kyushu — understanding, by this term, 
one displaying activity in its main or summit 
crater. So wrote Dr. J, J. Rein, after his ascent 
of the peak of Higashi Kirishima, also known 
^ Kaimondake. 
237 



Japan's Inheritance 



as Takachiho, a mountain hardly less revered 
among Japanese than Fuji itself. At that date 
the ground on the north-western side of the 
mountain was " warm," and " the smell of hydro- 
gen sulphide came from the crater," whose 
dimensions were estimated, by the German 
authority, at 250 yards in width and about 30 
in depth. Things have changed since then. The 
crater has doubled its width and increased its 
depth threefold. Next to that of Asama, it is 
now the most active in Japan. The transforma- 
tion took place in October, 1895, when a violent 
eruption occurred. At the present time the action 
of this cone resembles that of the great volcano 
of Central Japan — periodical " puffs " and, when 
these are interrupted, more or less violent out- 
bursts. Lava in the liquid form is less in 
evidence. Takachiho has a preference for 
stones. Owing to the considerable number of 
jagged fragments ejected from the two roaring 
fumaroles in the floor, the height and steepness 
of the walls have been greatly increased. One 
particularly knife-like part of the crater's lip is 
locally known as the Umankone (" Horse's 
Bone "). On the occasion of my visit, in 1907, 
the crater was at first too full of steam to see any- 
thing beyond its clean-cut brink. A few minutes 
later, this cleared away, revealing a finely shaped 
depression, with precipitous walls, and, in the 
floor, two large and many small fumaroles, from 
^ 238 



ISLAND-VOLCANO OF SAKURAJIMA (3,500 FEET), KAGOSHIMA BAY. 




"THE horse's bone" : TAKACHIHO. 

So called from the narrowness of its wall; the crater has a width, from rim to rim, of 500 
yards. It lies on the flank of the main peak (cf. plate facing p. 14). 



The Gateway of the South 

which, amid dense volumes of steam, lapilli and 
bombs of various sizes were frequently hurled 
into the air. I had difficulty in securing photo- 
graphs owing to the nervousness of my guide. 
Finding his efforts to dissuade me useless, he 
retired as quickly as might be to a safe distance 
and left me to my fate. 

This, of course, is not the original crater. It 
is parasitic — a final but still magnificent effort. 
The original vent stood — who shall say how many 
aeons ago? — i,ooo feet higher up the mountain. 
There may now be seen a cairn of stones which 
men, not Vulcan's satellites, have piled. This 
cairn, too, if legend be believed, must be of 
a ripe old age. Into it the grandson of the 
Sun-goddess, when he descended to earth, thrust 
his Heavenly vSpear— in truth it resembles an 
old-fashioned English pike — and none durst 
now remove it. To hang such a legend on the 
peg of an historical date seems sacrilege, but 
Japanese Shintoists have the hardihood to do 
so. At any rate we know, on the strength of 
the story, that the peak which forms so admir- 
able a feature in the relief of Southern Kyushu 
must have lost its summit crater at least seven 
centuries before the opening of the Christian 
era. And that is something to the good. 

The seclusion which Southern Kyushu — that is 
to say, the Satsuma and Osumi Provinces — so 
long enjoyed, is the result of a formidable natural 

239 



Japan's Inheritance 

barrier. This is an ancient schist range which 
tectonic force has failed to break. Running 
across the northern end of the Kirishima ridge, 
it effectually cuts off these provinces from the 
central part of ,the island. Short of a sea -passage 
— and the Japanese " coaster " is a thing of terror 
— there was no way of going from Kagoshima to 
Kumamoto save by basha over a fearsome pa^ss 
2,000 feet high, and thence for some 40 miles 
in flat -bottomed boats down the Kumagawa 
rapids on to 'Hitoyoshi, where the railway could 
be joined. It is an interesting journey, once 
the long climb has been accomplished, causing 
the traveller to wonder which of the twain were 
keener — the thrills imparted by the wild career 
of the rickety stage-coach down a completel,y 
unfenced gorge, or those aroused by the whirling 
of a frail punt along a foaming torrent, missing 
by inches jagged promontories of basalt hun- 
dreds of feet in height. Now, however, the 
railway has crept up where erstwhile the river 
had things all its own way, and has pierced 
the dividing range in a tunnel nearly 2 miles 
long. Satsuma is thus at last brought into direct 
communication with the rest of the Empire — and 
the world. One may travel from one end of 
Kyushu to the other by the iron road. 

Southwards from the schist range, the whole 
country is overlaid with ejectamenta and beds of 
tuff from the Kirishima craters. Curiously flat- 

240 



The Gateway of the South 

topped hills of uniform height surround the head 
of the Kagoshima Gulf. Columnar structure 
shows their upper parts to consist of a lava-flow 
of unusual width from the same source. While 
the slopes of the range itself carry the finest 
timber in Japan, the hollows of the lower levels 
are given over to tobacco culture. Tobacco is 
also grown on a large scale at the foot of Nasu- 
yama and at Nihon-matsu, at the foot of Adatara- 
san in Northern Japan — both active volcanoes. 
Soil derived from volcanic material seems to be 
specially adapted for the cultivation of tobacco. 
Thirty years ago, the German authority already 
quoted pointed out that dolerite disintegrates into 
" a fertile loam." The infertility which marks 
the soil in certain districts is due, not to 
volcanic products, but to disintegrated granite 
and crystalline schists. The amazing luxuriance 
of Nikko, these gorgeous woods of Kirishima, 
the fertility of the Kuwanto Plain, the presence 
of ricefields within the ancient crater of Asosan, 
and the cultivation of tobacco at the foot of 
still active cones, ought to be sufficient to confirm 
this view. Still, the old fiction dies hard. Miss 
Semple, in a paper on " Agricultural Conditions 
in Japan," recently read before the Geographical 
Society, has endeavoured to give it another lease 
of life — and has thereby furnished one more 
example of the danger of making generalizations 
on the strength of a hasty survey. 

241 Q 



. . CHAPTER XIII 

ACROSS THE STRAITS 

A new land — The Japanese " Gib " — Wintry rigours — 
Flora and fauna — Ainus and pit-dwellers — Structure of 
the island — Communications — A trip in a coaster — 
Sulphur trade — A remarkable peak — A succulent 
weed — Volcano Bay — Creeping vines — The dome of 
Tarumai 

Many islands, many straits. The corollary, of 
course, applies with special force to Japan. Has 
not the famous Inland Sea been designated 
" The Sea between the Straits " {Seto-no-Uchi- 
no-Uml) ? This, by the way, is quite a modern 
name, intended to correspfond to the foreign 
expression " Inland Sea." Japan's Mediter- 
ranean was not recognized as such till travellers 
from the West, threading in ocean liners its 
island-studded " narrows," began with one 
accord to sing the praises of its scenery. 
These, however, and the innumerable other 
passages within the four corners of the Empire, 

seem rather to serve as bonds of union — dividing 

242 



Across the Straits 

only, as it were, to bind. With the straits that 
mark off the North Country from the rest, it 
is a different matter. They are straits indeed. 
Beyond them, Japan is another land. 

Leaving Aomori, the steamer glides out the 
ample harbour past the Mountain of Dread.* 
Nor does it take long, as the N.Y.K. have some 
2o-knot turbine boats on this run for the benefit 
of the numerous officials who pass to and fro. 
Somehow or other, one feels as if an old land 
were being left for a new. As the vessel nears 
the Japanese " Gib " — the bold headland behind 
which Hakodate spreads itself delightfully on 
a crescent bay recalls the famous Rock — one 
realizes that scenes unlike those of " Old " Japan 
lie ahead . From that headland, indeed, for thirty 
miles eastward to the Esan promontory, the coast 
recalls that of northern Ireland from Dunluce 
to Fair Head. Towering basaltic cliffs alternate 
with tiny green -backed coves, and more than 
one black lava tongue runs down in hexagonal 
columns to a stormy sea by way of reminding 
us that " Giant's Causeways " are no monopoly 
of the Antrim coast. Fair Head as a terminal 
point is magnificent ; replace it by an active 
volcano 2,000 feet high, and you have, I trow, 
something more imposing still. 

Along the deep Tsugaru Straits, with their 
strong cold currents running ceaselessly Pacific - 
^ Ozoresan, in Tonami. 
243 



Japan's Inheritance 



wards, the naturalist has drawn a line. By this 
he marks off Yezo from the rest of Japan. To 
begin with, no one would venture to call the 
climate of this North Sea Circuit — as its 
new name, ^Hokkaido, implies — sub -tropical . 




Contours 
3,000 ft. and 
6,000 ft. 



HOKKAIDO (YEZO) 

A, Aomori ; H, Hakodate ; E, Esan Pro- 
montory ; K, Komagatake ; V, Volcano 
Bay ; M, Muroran ; T, Tarumai ; S, 
Shiribeshi-dake. 



Hakodate lies on the same parallel as the Isle 
of Wight. It would be difhcult to picture the 
genial " Garden of England " under two feet of 
snow all winter long. And this is Yezo's farthest 
south ! Six to eight feet are the figures for all 
the island north of the Uchi-ura (Volcano Bay). 

244 



Across the Straits 

To such rigours does Yezo's nearness to the 
Siberian plains condemn it. Nor does the kindly 
Kuroshiwo, but, instead, the chill Naka-no-shiwo, 
lave its shores. It was with ready sympathy 
that I listened, late one summer, to the plaint 
of the manager of a match -factory in the Toma- 
komai district. He had come from some balmy 
sun-slope on the Inland Sea, under a three years' 
agreement. Not half of his term had passed, 
but he was counting the days to his release. 
It was then mid -September, and though the sun 
shone warm during the day, there were frosts 
at night ; and the factory staff were busily pre- 
paring for the snow-pall to descend. 

In Yezo, north of the naturalist's line, oak 
and ash displace pine and maple from their 
supremacy. The bamboo vanishes ; vegetation 
becomes less diffuse, more concentrated ; the 
hills wear a more open look, and creeping vines 
turn the woods into a nightmare of entangle- 
ment. Hands and feet do not suffice to take 
the traveller through an unopened Hokkaido 
forest, and when he succeeds in cutting his way 
he will see no monkeys. The Tsugaru channel, 
through ages past, has been too much for them. 
To dub any slender steel -bridge h^re a saru- 
hashi I — like the famous viaduct on the Kofu line 
— would be more than a misnomer. It would 
be to fly in the face of zoolog)^. 

' Monkey's bridge. 
245 



Japan's Inheritance 



The existence of Yezo seems to have been 
unknown to the Japanese of the Middle Ages. 
At the time when WilHam the Norman was 
estabhshing himself in England, Japanese 
generals were engaged in driving the aboriginal 
Ainus towards the northern fastnesses of Hondo. 
It was in the course of one of these campaigns 
that the heroic Hachiman Taro Yoshiiye was 
miraculously saved with his army from perishing 
of thirst. Not until the seventeenth century did 
Yezo come under the official ken. It then re- 
ceived somewhat Vague recognition as part of 
the Shogun's dominions; and when, in 1868, 
the Shogunate collapsed, the northern island 
actually became, for nearly one year, a republic. 
It seems fair to conclude that Yezo was a new 
land even to the hairy Ainus — who now form 
a small and fast dwindling section of the popu- 
lation. To reach that haven of refuge from the 
advancing wave of Japanese assimilation it was 
worth braving the peril of the straits. The 
chances are, however, that when *' the bar- 
barians " reached their Canaan they found the 
even more primitive race of Koropok-guru (pit- 
dwellers) in possession. 

There are forests in the heart of the North 
Country where none but Ainus have penetrated ; 
there are streams and lakes where none but these 
hairy, thick -set dwarfs have fished from queer 
dug-outs, propelled, not by the yulo, as else- 

246 



Across the Straits 

where in Japan, but by rudimentary oars worked, 
not in unison, but alternatively. In trackless 
woods, too, the aborigine still hunts the bear 
with flint-headed spear and arrows, as in 
the Age of Stones. At Kushiro and several 
places in the interior hill-sides are riddled with 
the cave -dwellings of the Koropok-guru, and the 
crests of isolated eminences bristle with rude 
earth -forts, such as the ancient Britons might 
have built. Even in a " modern " Ainu village 
the houses are of rough stone -and-mud work, 
with heavily thatched roofs, forming a strange 
contrast to the lightly framed " boxes " of the 
Japanese. But all these are the final symptoms 
of a passing age. By dint of official encourage- 
ment. Government colonization schemes, and 
what not, the Tokyo authorities have succeeded 
in raising the population of Yezo to nearly a 
million. Thus the Ainu folk are effectually 
swamped. With their 15,000 they represent a 
feeble — and an ever feebler — few. 

As in Japan's southernmost island, so in the 
north land ; an ancient schist range is inter- 
sected by a line of volcanic formations, of more 
recent date. The Saghalien and Kurile chains, 
crossing in the midst, give the island its diamond 
shape. The structure should in consequence be 
fairly simple— but there are complications. Vast 
intrusions of granite give ruggedness to the north 
and south uplift ; equally vast effusions of 

247 



Japan's Inheritance 



trachyte give character to the east and west. 
The last -mentioned extremity has been taxed, as 
it were, beyond endurance. Here the Hondo 
volcanic zone encountered that of the Thousand 
Isles, and terrestrial convulsion was the result. 
Hence the broken, contorted shape of this part 
of the island ; hence the grand Volcano Bay, 
where some thousands of square miles retired 
beneath the waves by way of protest — not, how- 
ever, without leaving behind them a wealth of 
striking and uncommon landscapes. 

The Hokkaido railway system is excellent, so 
far as it goes ; but a glance at the convolutions 
of the south-westerly extremity of the island will 
suffice to show that ample scope exists for the 
coasting steamer. Now, a few trips in real 
Japanese " coasters " — I do not refer to the well- 
equipped N.Y.K. and Osaka S.K. boats — would 
be an admirable tonic for the disturbed mental 
condition of the globe-trotter rabldas, who calls 
upon heaven and earth to witness the rosy per- 
fection of all things Japanese. In truth, if pro- 
longed exposure to the sea-air is good for the 
system generally, such excursions would be a 
tonic in more ways than one, for confinement 
" 'tween decks " is out of the question. Ninety- 
nine persons in a hundred would rather keep 
company with the night, the waves, and the stars 
than face the horrors of the general cabin. And 
the hundredth, who did not so, would surely 

repent it. 

248 



Across the Straits 

When the trip can be done by day — even 
though it may begin or be announced to begin 
at a startHng hour — and when the weather is kind, 
there need be no harrowing experiences . To ex- 
pect anything Uke adherence to a time-table, or 
even to the route prescribed, would, however, be 
vanity. I remember once booking a passage on 
one of these craft at Hakodate. My intention 
being to explore the remarkable coast about the 
Esan promontory, a journey by steamer seemed 
more expeditious than a 30 -mile up-hill, down- 
dale jog on a Hokkaido horse with a wooden 
saddle. The hour for departure was compara- 
tively reasonable — 2 p.m. — and the start punctual 
enough. We were well out of the harbour, and 
on the point of putting about to the east, when 
a junk near by, more or less becalmed, entered 
into vociferous communication with our skipper. 
For the fishermen two questions were at stake : 
that of getting across the current -cursed strait 
without recourse to a night of hard yuloing, and 
— the price. The latter involved some haggling, 
but after some lusty exchange of words the 
necessary rope was forthcoming, and the 
SS. Hakata Mara headed sou' -sou' -west instead 
of east, at half her previous leisurely pace, while 
the crew of the junk took their ease. The 
feelings or convenience of the half-dozen 
passengers caused not a thought to any one 
on either craft. This went on for four hours 

249 



Japan's Inheritance 

or so, and when at last the rope was ca^st off 
and our coaster put about, we were nearer the 
Tonami Peninsula than the Esan promontory. 
It was midnight when we reached the little port 
for which we had set out . The village was asleep 
— and seemed to have been so for hours. As 
the shrieking of the siren produced no apparent 
effect, the yells of the skipper and his crew, 
now singly, now in concert, were added thereto, 
making night hideous and awaking strange 
echoes in the hills. At length two drowsy fisher- 
men put out in a sampan, and, after further 
parley, the " mails " and passengers were landed 
— the former (it must be confessed) in vastly 
better condition than the latter. It was past 
I a.m. when the people of the only inn in the 
place were knocked up to give us bed and board, 
which, it must be confessed, they did with an 
excellent grace. 

The existence of a dozen little ports along 
this rock -bound coast is bound up with the 
sulphur trade. From solfatara orifices, the beds 
of sulphurous streams, and the craters of old 
volcanoes the raw mineral is gathered with pick 
and spade. It is then roasted in iron cylinders 
over a slow fire in kilns, packed in strawbound 
bundles weighing 50 to 100 kin apiece, and 
stored in godowns on the beach for shipment. 
Such of it as does not find its way abroad is 
used for match-making — one of Japan's most 

250 



Across the Straits 

successful industries ; and, to save the cost of 
transport, factories are often erected in the 
vicinity of the diggings. The arrangement is 
convenient, but sometimes costly in the long run. 
A match-factory erected on the lip of Shirane- 
san's crater was destroyed by a sudden eruption 
in 1885. Another, situated on the floor of one 
of the supposed extinct basins of Asosan, met, 
more recently, with a similar fate ; and, on 
Azumayama, in 1900, eighty sulphur -diggers 
were killed by a sudden outburst. 

Not far north of Hakodate is a study in magni- 
ficent curves — Komagatake upsweeping from the 
still waters of Onuma Lake. In a land where 
splendid curves are common, what gives the 
mountain its distinction? Of itself, the flank- 
line is perfect — unbroken, logarithmic ; unex- 
celled even on Fuji, or on the eastward face 
of the Peak of the Heavenly Spear. What 
arrests the eye is the strong contrast of its 
terminal points. Landwards, it ends in the 
wooded fringe of a lake ; skywards, in a huge 
pinnacle — jagged, precipitous, and 500 feet in 
height, which only two intrepid men, taking it 
on the easiest side, have dared to climb. And 
what is that pinnacle? Merely the outstanding 
fragment of an ancient crater-wall. Beyond and 
below it lies a different scene. Komagatake is 
dying. Many, many years ago it made that 
pinnacle, and, in the same outburst, flung the 

251 



Japan's Inheritance 

rest of its summit -basin seawards in a stream 
of shattered rock. There to this day it Hes — 
an incUned plane, 4 miles in length and as 
many thousand feet in height, straight from the 
simmering crater to the Pacific surf. That was 
the Saddle Peak's last great effort. Fifty years 
ago, indeed, with a blast of red-hot ashes it set 
the forests on its farthest slopes in a mighty 
blaze ; but that was a detail . Komagatake has 
resigned itself to the inevitable — a harmless 
senility. Unthinking tourists may now tread its 
crater floor at no greater risk than that of 
stumbling into a crevasse (of steam and sulphur, 
not of ice and snow), or thrusting a careless 
foot through the treacherous crust of one of 
the many heat-blisters on its floor. 

On my visit to this district in 1907 I found 
the inns at Onuma full, and therefore took boat 
across the larger lake to a little onsen on the 
shore of Junsai-numa, the smallest and most 
pleasing of the three sheets of water. It was 
a humble inn, with still more humble fare ; but, 
by way of atonement, mine host offered me a 
dish of the famous jansal, fresh taken from 
the lake. This much-esteemed delicacy is as 
palatable as it is difificult to describe. Botanists 
have, of course, a name for it — Limnanthentunt 
peltatum, if I am not mistaken ; but how many 
have experienced the pleasant thrill of tasting 
it? The stem of the weed (if so prosaic a term 

252 




KOMAGATAKE, FROM ONUMA LAKE. 
The margin of the lake has been made info a "landscape garden." 




LAVA DUME OP" TARUMAI. 
A mass of andesite, extruded to a height of 200 feet in igog. 



To face p. 252 



Across the Straits 

be permitted) consists of a jelly-like substance, 
clear as crystal, succulent, delicious. As for 
the taste, that is beyond my capacity to describe ; 
but a friend of mine seemed to be pretty near 
the mark when he declared it to be " something 
between sugar-cane and an oyster, with a hint 
of calves '-foot jelly thrown in." I commend 
the Llmnanthemum peltattim, from Junsai-numa, 
to the notice of epicures. 

It is magnificent, this Uchi-ura, with imposing 
volcanic cones disposed sentinel -like about its 
shores. Most imposing of all is Shiribeshi-dake 
— so imposing, indeed, as to give rise to the 
belief that it is the highest mountain in Yezo — 
which it is not. Flat -topped, by reason of its 
three craters, it rises, Fu!ji-like, in isolated 
grandeur. How simple to negotiate (from a 
distance) seem those gentle blue slopes, despite 
an ever-increasing steepness summitwards ! But 
distance lends enchantment. Those innocent- 
looking slopes are virgin forests, bent on resist- 
ing your invasion. Half-way up creeping vines 
take possession of the mountain ; and the 
" devil's punch-bowl," at the summit, with its 
chaos of andesitic boulders, can only be won, 
literally, at the point of the sword. But the 
fight is worth while. South-western Yezo lies 
at your feet, magnificent in defeat. On every 
side the skyline meets the sea, save that on which 
you look over the bluff shoulders of Eniwadake 

253 



Japan's Inheritance 

at that steaming mountain Tarumai, and even 
so you must look across the gloomy reservoir 
of Shikotsu. 

A weird mountain, in truth, that Tarumai. 
In March, 1909, it greatly alarmed the people 
of the villages between itself and the sea. Many 
fled for their lives to Muroran, so terrible became 
the aspect of the mountain beneath its gleam- 
ing pall of smoke, so unpleasant the ceaseless 
rain of lapilli. When after some weeks the com- 
motion was over, a strange thing was seen to 
have happened. Some demon beneath the 
mountain — or, perchance, some dragon — had 
squeezed the mountain from below, or by 
the waist. For a vast mass of solidified tar (or so 
it seemed) stood up through the floor of a crater 
that, if not dead, was at least decrepit. When 
the great men — seers, astrologers, and what not 
— came up from Tokyo to " inspect " the moun- 
tain, they pronounced this squat, bristling column 
of infernal origin an effusion of andesitic lava, 
too viscous, too consistent to flow. Wherefore it 
had reared itself on high, and remains, stark 
and steaming, to this day. Had it risen higher, 
snapped, and toppled over into Shikotsu, 2,000 
feet below, there would have been trouble., 



254 



CHARTER XIV 

COUNTRY LIFE IN JAPAN 

A change of status— Is it the fault of the land ?— All work 
and no play — The system of tenure — The capitalist 
owner — No live stock — The rice-harvest — Tea and silk 
— Where women are welcome — Travel-clubs — Their 
educational value — Superior physique of the country- 
folk — The fishing industry — Grievances of the fishermen 
— Men of moods 

Three-fifths of the people of Japan live " on 
the land." In feudal days they were, after the 
samurai, the most looked upi to of the whole 
population. Things have changed since then — 
are changing still. The farmer and the hlya- 
kasho (field-worker) are now as a class either 
pitied or despised — for reasons we shall see. 
Agriculturists, as a whole, labour under great 
disabilities, and often their labours are econo- 
mically vain. It is not surprising, therefore, 
that recent years should reveal the growth 
in Japan of a symptom which causes disquiet 
in so many other nations — a shifting pf population 
from the country to the town. In the last decade 

255 



Japan's Inheritance 

the decrease has been 5 per cent. — from 63 to 
58 ; but the rate of decrease shows signs of 
increasing rather than diminishing. This is a 
movement which can, and should, be checked. 
Japan's country -f'olk are physically the best of 
the race. She cannot afford any impoverish- 
ment of the land nor any decline of her rural 
population. Goldsmith's most weighty lines 
might well be written over the portals of every 
Kencho ^ and State department : — 

" Princes and lords may flourish or may fade, 
A breath can make them, as a breath has made ; 
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, 
When once destroyed, can never be supplied." 

Why are these things so in Japaji ? Is it the 
fault of the land, or of the people? Or must 
we set it down to the operiation of a set of 
artificial conditions which have grown up about 
them? 

There are some who blame the land. Too 
small a proportion of it is cultivable, they say, 
and that which is cultivable is not as fertile as 
it should be. Some twelve million acres, re- 
presenting an eighth of the total area, are now, 
as a matter of fact, under cultivation. Much of 
it, too, has only been rescued from' sterility at 
the cost of infinite toil. Still, the worst part of 
the work has been done. Whatever might have 

* Prefectural office. 

256 



Country Life in Japan 

been amiss with the farmer's raw material in 
the beginning, it has, by irrigation, manuring, 
and liberal use of the hoe, been brought to a 
fair state of productivity. The introduction of 
modern agricultural implements and the use of 
artificial manures might increase the yield to 
a slight extent ; but, taking things as they are, 
there is not much more to be got out of the land 
than is now actually got from it. Climatic con- 
ditions, also, are on the farmer's side. Thirty 
per cent, of the whole cultivated area bears 
a double harvest every year — a circumstance for 
which the kindly Kuroshiwo is mainly respon- 
sible, and which more than counterbalances the 
mischief wrought by floods, typhoons, and other 
untoward happenings. 

Nor is there anything wrong with the people. 
No more industrious and thrifty soul exists on 
this planet than the Japanese peasant. " All 
work and no play " is his lot from one year's 
end to another. Soon after sundown a hush 
falls over street and house. A " tub," a frugal 
meal, a pipe, and the people are aisleep. Which 
is not surprising, seeing that they rose with the 
dawn and have toiled in the fields ever since. 
There is no social life in the Japanese village, 
because there is no leisure. Wife and daughters 
are busy in the " paddies " with father and the 
boys. Squires and country magnates are in- 
stitutions unknown in Japan — though 'now loom- 

257 R 



Japan's Inheritance 



ing, in a dim sort of way, on the horizon. On 
feast-days, with bell and rosary, the long-robed 
priest comes to the humblest door to solicit alms ; 
but rare indeed is the parson with a thought 
for the social welfare of his cure. Occasionally a 
matsuri arrives to break the monotony, when one 
may dance with departed spirits in the twilight ; 
but every labourer with a few sen to spare will 
trip it to the nearest city — if that be not far — 
where things are done on a larger and brighter 
scale than a country village could possibly 
contrive . 

Nevertheless, this humdrum, all-work-and-no- 
play existence does not make the Japanese Jack 
a dull boy. He is, as we shall see, the reverse 
of a clod — and cheerful withal. 'But the main 
point is that there is no shirking, no idling, no 
folding of the hands. The unsatisfactory con- 
dition of agriculture in Japan — the fact that there 
is a land problem' — cannot be attributed to 
indolence on the part of the peasantry. 

Under the system' which has prevailed since 
the restoration, the land belongs nominally to 
the Emperor, to whom it was surrendered by the 
great landowners, the Dalmyos. In practice it 
belongs to the people. The estate of broad 
acres is now the exception ; sm^ll holdings are 
the rule. An average size is three or four acres 
— divided into a multitude of " fields " no larger 
than a drawing-room, and carried far up the 

258 



Country Life in Japan 

hill-sides in terraces. From such a farm the 
annual yield usually suffices for the modest needs 
of a family of five or six members, all able to 
work. Often it has to be supplemented from 
other sources. 

This is an ideal system, you will say. It is 
peasant proprietorship, it is " living on the land." 
Unfortunately, it does not work out well in 
practice. Taxation is the cause of the trouble. 
In the old days, when the Daimyo was the owner, 
rent was paid in kind — so many koku. per annum 
of rice, barley, or millet, as the case might be. 
Nowadays the Government levies a special land- 
tax, which (1890) has risen from 2^ to 8 per 
cent., on the value of the land; and there are 
other burdens amounting in all to 15 or 20 per 
cent, of the total yield. The farmer, finding him- 
self unequal to the demand, has recourse to a 
mortgage. The process is repeated, and, finally, 
the land passes into the possession of the money- 
lender. Thus the peasant proprietor becomes a 
tenant farmer, and sometimes even a labourer, 
on the farm he once owned. 

In the purely agricultural, as distinct from 
the tea and silk -growing, districts, such cases 
are numbered by the thousand. There has thus 
come into existence a new class in the Japanese 
rural world — that of the capitalist owner. In 
course of time this may give rise to a class of 

landed gentry, who will be able to do more for 

259 



Japan's Inheritance 

the land in the way of development than the 
impecunious smallholder could have done, and 
who will play the part in the social life of the 
district that the squire does lon the English 
country-side. But in the meanwhile the change 
is reacting unfavourably on the state of agri- 
culture in Japan. It is undermining the health, 
independence, and contentment of the sons of 
the soil, and is causing a steady flow of the 
population from the country to the town. 

The Japanese farmer does not keep live stock. 
'Horses are not used for ploughing, except some- 
times on wheat and barley fields. As a rule, 
the fields are too small. The stranger who wants 
to picture to himself the Japanese rural landscape 
must dismiss from his mind all thought of grass- 
grown meadows peopled with sheep and oxen. 
Grass there is, but it is bamboo-grass — dry and 
sharp and spiny. At best it is not very green, 
and would be death to any sheep. Cows are 
kept on the outskirts of large towns, but they 
do not graze on the meadows or hill -side. Their 
food is brought to them in the sheds. Experi- 
ments in stock-raising have been made, with 
Government aid, in the Hokkaido, and horse- 
breeding has been begun on some of the Crown 
lands in Central Japan ; but in no other part of 
the country does the slightest inducement offer 
in this direction. 

Five cereals constitute the Japanese farmer's 

260 



Country Life in Japan 

stock-in-trade — rice, barley, millet, wheat, and 
beans. Of these, the first is by far the most 
important. The yearly national Budget turns 
on the success or failure of the rice-harvest, 
which in its turn depends to a great extent on 
the weather of September, the critical month. 
Too much rain or too little, a flood or a typhoon, 
at or about the 210th or 221st day {i.e., from 
the date of planting) may mean financial ruin 
to many farmers and a new crop of capitalist 
landlords. For several years past the average 
yield for the whole country has exceeded 
50,000,000 koku, which supplies the needs of 
the nation and leaves a substantial balance for 
export. Rice is not, however, the staple food 
of the poorer classes. To them it is a luxury, 
used only on festive occasions, such as New 
Year, and for invalids. They have to subsist 
on millet and the satsuma-inio (sweet potato) — 
unknown in Japan two centuries ago, but now 
extensively grown in all the southern parts of 
the Empire. 

In Northern Japan and the upland districts 
of the south, wheat and barley take the place 
of rice. Sometimes in the same districts the 
floors of the valleys, with richer soil and more 
moisture, are occupied by rice, the slopes by 
the more hardy crops. In such regions, when 
the lower levels are bright with the virid patch- 
work of the rice-plots, the hill-sides seem bare ; 

261 



Japan's Inheritance 



but in early winter the latter are gay with crops, 
while the " paddies " present a dreary waste 
of mud and stubble. 

A line from Fuji to Fukui on the west coast 
marks off roughly the tea and silk districts from 
one another. South and west of this line lie 
the tea districts ; north and east, the silk. 

Just west of this line, Shizuoka is the centre 
of the tea-trade. As most of the " black," i.e., 
the fired, tea is sent to America, Shimizu ^ has 
been made a port of call for steamers bound 
for the Pacific Coast. The greater part of the 
green tea is kept in the country, and makes an 
excellent passe -temps for the visitor or customer, 
to whom' it is always proffered as a matter of 
course. If, at a hotel, black tea is wanted, one 
must ask for Nankin o-cha (China tea). The 
first pickings of the plantations are sent for the 
most part to Tokyo and Kyoto, where they are 
sold at fancy prices to Japanese of means. 
Formosa (Oolong) tea, with a well-marked 
flavour of its own, is being pushed by " the 
authorities " with a view to developing the 
prosperity of that island colony. 

Central Japan is the chief home of sericulture 

— the foremost and most profitable of Japanese 

industries . Large areas in the highland provinces 

of Shinshiu and Kai are given over to the rearing 

of the worms and the winding off of the silk 

* The port of Shizuoka, with a somewhat shallow harbour. 

262 



Country Life in Japan 

from the cocoons — either by hand or by looms 
worked by water-power. In the towns adjacent 
to these districts, the making of habutae and 
other silk fabrics occupies many hands. 
Mulberry-trees are grown extensively, the 
Government giving an annual grant of 
Y. 8 0,000 for the purpose — and many of the 
houses have an upper story, the floors of 
which, strewn with freshly gathered leaves, 
are given up to the precious worms. Raw 
silk for export, when wound off from the 
cocoons, is made up in small bales worth Y. 1,000 
apiece . As such, it finds its way to the Yokohama 
godowns, and so to the hold of the trans -Pacific 
liner. That for home manufacture is sent to 
the filatures at Mayebashi, Nagano, Fukui, and 
other spinning centres. The annual value of 
the raw silk produced is about 170,000,000 
yen, of which nearly 90 per cent, is exported 
in bales. A slight set-back due to inferior 
quality was noted in 1909, but the ground then 
lost has been recovered. Speaking generally, 
and of the industry as a whole, it may be said 
that the total production has increased in value 
by 30 per cent, during the past seven years, 
and promises to continue in that way. 

The country-folk engaged in the production of 
tea and silk wear an air of prosperity to which 
the hiyakusho and the farmer proper cannot 
aspire. The houses are on a larger and more 

263 



Japan's Inheritance 



substantial scale ; men, women, and children are 
better dressed. Though women do excellent 
work in the ricefields throughout the country, 
their deftness renders them specially useful in 
tea-picking and silk-spinning. Consequently, 
while in most parts of Japan the old Chinese 
prejudice against female offspring still in a 
measure survives, daughters are welcomed as of 
distinct economic value in the Shinshiu and 
Shizuoka districts. Large families in favour- 
ably situated districts sometimes take up silk- 
rearing in addition to the ordinary field-work, 
but both of these are essentially summer in- 
dustries. The winter in the highlands is a 
veritable night, " when no man can work." 

As has already been suggested, the Japanese 
'Hodge, for all his lack of play, is no clod. This, 
I think, may be attributed to the fact that he 
possesses a strong instinct for travel, and, when 
possible, obeys it. As funds do not permit of 
his doing all in this direction he would like, he 
summons the co-operative principle to his aid. 
Every rural district has its travel club, based 
partly on religious, partly on social, sentiment. 
Its members call themselves pilgrims, but do 
not debar themselves from' a fair share of con- 
viviality. Each subscribes a few sen a month, 
and when the doyo comes, lots are cast for a 
company representative of the village and com- 
mensurate in numbers with the funds. A leader 

264 





"darby and JOAN.' 



IN THE RICE-FIELDS : PLANTING OUT. 





A FISHING VILLAGE, IZU COAST. 



A RURAL POSTMAN. 



To face p. 264. 



J 



Country Life in Japan 

(sendachl) familiar with the route is chosen, and, 
staff in hand, attired in white, easily washed 
cotton shirts and " breeks," with big, wide- 
brimmed hats and a strip of matting hung over 
their backs to serve both as sunshade, waterproof, 
and bed, they set forth to tour the holy places. 
Such shrines as Ise and Ikegami apart, moun- 
tains constitute most of these. Fuji is ascended 
by 30,000 of these pilgrims every July and 
August, Ontake, Oyama, Daisen, Nantaisan, and 
Takachiho by scarcely inferior numbers. 

The educative and social effect of these tours 
is considerable. Rarely do we find inhabitants 
who, like so many Occidental rustics, have never 
left the neighbourhood which gave them' birth. 
" The frog in the well," says a Japanese proverb, 
" knows nothing of the great world outside." 
These travelling clubs go far to eliminate the 
narrowness and parochialism which characterize 
rural life in other countries. They inculcate, too, 
a genuine love of Nature and of the beautiful in 
Nature, and so, the love of country. These 
pilgrims see things, they get new ideas, they 
light upon some new invention or labour-saving 
device. All these — the fruits of their journeys — 
are taken back to their sequestered village and 
placed at the disposal of the community. 

Physically, the country-folk of Japan, taken 

all round, are much superior to the townsmen. 

Observations of the people in the various parts 

265 



Japan's Inheritance 



of the Empire have led me to the following 
conclusions : ( i ) the inhabitants of the mountain 
districts are superior to those of the lowlands ; 
(2) the inhabitants of Northern Japan are 
superior to those of the south; (3) the fisher- 
folk in general — and especially those of the 
north — are the best developed of all. The 
deficiency of stature under which the majority 
of Japanese labour is the result not of smallness 
in the trunk but of shortness of the lower limbs. 
From the fact that fishermen and those who live 
" the open life " in the mountain districts are not 
thus hampered, we may attribute the deficiency 
to the habit of squatting on the feet for a large 
part of every day — a practice from which, for 
the bulk of the population, there is no escape 
under present conditions. Then the sendo (boat- 
men) do a great deal of yulo-m^ — a far finer 
form of exercise than rowing, in that it brings 
all the muscles into play, with the body in an, 
erect position. 

A million and a half of the Japanese people 
are engaged in the fishing industry. This is 
about twice as many as are engaged in seri- 
culture, and about a third as many as those 
engaged in farming. The number of boats in 
use averages about one for every three persons 
engaged, but 90 per cent, of them are of the 
sampan order, and under 30 feet in length. The 

number of fishermen shows in recent years 

266 



Country Life in Japan 

the serious decline of i 5 per cent . They do not 
indulge in the luxury of Royal Commissions in 
Japan ; but here, if anywhere, is a case for 
inquiry. The main grievance is the same as 
with the agricultural labourer. The fisherman 
does " business in great waters " — much busi- 
ness, and often at peril to himself ; but his return 
is small. The average proceeds of a year's 
fishing work out to no more than 5 yen a 
month per head, side by side with which hard 
fact must be put another — that, in a bad year, 
from eight hundred to a thousand of those who 
" go down to the sea in ships " never come back. 
Another cause of the dfecline in the number 
of those engaged in the fisheries is the 
advent of the steam-trawler. In 1898, with 
a view to extending the fishing areas, the 
Government offered a bounty of from 30 to 
40 yen per ton on vessels of not more than 
200 tons gross. As far as deep-sea fishing 
went, excellent results were obtained. The 
tonnage thus engaged rose in ten years from 
500 to 1 1,000, and the " catch " by some 60 per 
cent. The sealing industry made such headway 
that, in 1908, the bounty for sealers was with- 
drawn. Difficulties, however, arose with the in- 
shore men, who had been accustomed to venture 
well out to sea and regarded the trawlers as 
poaching on their preserves. Vessels in receipt 

of the subsidy were thereupon restricted, under 

267 



Japan's Inheritance 

substantial penalties, to certain areas, and steam- 
trawlers are no longer eligible for Government 
aid. The whalers, however, whose field in the 
summer extends from the south of Tokyo Bay- 
northwards as far as Kinkwazan, and in winter 
off the Tosa and Osumi coasts of Southern Japan, 
continue to enjoy the bounty, and to such purpose 
as to have driven Russian and other competitors 
off the field. The zeal with which the thirty- 
odd sealers which yearly issue from' Japanese 
ports have pushed their operations has more 
than once brought them into collision with 
Russian and American sealers off the Kamchat- 
kan and Alaskan coasts. 

Sardines and bonito are the most valuable of 
the in -shore takings, though tai, mackerel, and 
cuttlefish are not far behind. Of the pelagic 
catches, whales, seals, and tunny give the best 
returns. All together, and including shellfish, 
seaweed, and other marine products, the annual 
value of the fishermen's winnings from the 
great waters exceeds a hundred million yen. 
Shizuoka, Chiba, and Nagasaki prefectures lead 
the way in the value of their takes, while the 
■Hokkaido itself furnishes lo per cent, of the 
whole . 

Though women can and do play a large part 
in most of Japan's rural industries, they are at a 
discount in the fisheries. Most of the men, how- 
ever, have their little plot of ground adjoining 

268 



Country Life in Japan 

the houses, which the enterprising house -wife 
will make the basis of a little market -gardening. 
In some parts of the islands, in particular, every 
bit of the land-work is left to the women, and 
even when bad weather prevents junk or sampan 
from' putting out, their lords and masters lead 
a life of ease and pleasure." Your Japanese 
fisherman, too, is a man of moods. He has 
managed to earn for himself a quarrelsome 
reputation. Police who endeavour to enforce 
the regulations of a paternal Government have a 
hard task with the men of the sea. Serious 
conflicts took place a year ago in the Osaka 
district. Sometimes, unfortunately, the fisher- 
men fall out among themselves. Recently, 
in the Tokyo Bay district, a number of boats 
belonging to a neighbouring town were deemed 
by a rival community to have transgressed their 
proper limits. Protests having failed, sterner 
measures were resorted to. The objectors came 
out in force, armed with stones, sticks, and 
knives, and a pitched battle between fleets of 
twenty-odd sampans apiece took place upon the 
high seas . And in this heroic fashion the dispute 
was settled. 

^ The same applies — in all weathers — to the Shima 
province of the Kii peninsula, where the women work as 
divers. Proficiency in the art is here a necessary preliminary 
to marriage. 

269 



: CHAPTER XV 

CENTRES OF POPULATION 

Density of population — The fortress at the " Estuary Gate " 
— Osaka and its atmosphere — Earthquakes and 
"shanties" — Foreign influences — Locomotion and 
" magnificent distances " — Tokyo's parks — The " social 
evil" — A city uniquely planned — The former treaty 
ports — The typical city — Earthquakes and conflagrations 
— A city fire 

Japan proper — exclusive, that is to say, of Eor- 
mosa, Chosen (Korea), and South Saghalien — 
is the third most densely populated country in 
the world, being exceeded in this respect by 
the British Isles and Belgium. When it is 
remembered that practically the whole of its 
population of fifty millions lives on the eighth 
part of the area of the country, the actual density 
will be seen to be far greater than the figure 
— 340 to the square mile — implies. A Japanese 
requires, or at least uses, less room wherein to 
live and move and have his being than does 
the European. Houses being smaller, streets 
narrower, sidewalks for pedestrians virtually un- 

270 



Centres of Population 

known, and open spaces few and far between, 
the cities of Japan cover a smaller area in 
relation to their population than do those of, 
probably, any other country. 

Japan's two largest cities — Tokyo and Osaka 
— present an instructive contrast in this respect. 
The area of the Japanese nuetropolis is, roughly, 
ICO square miles, and its population at a liberal 
estimate two millions. Osaka, on the other hand, 
though its inhabitants number well over a 
million, covers no more than lo square miles. 
The great commercial centre of the Japanese 
Empire is therefore four or five times more 
densely crowded than its capital. 

It would perhaps be scarcely fair to take 

either Tokyo or Osaka as a typical Japanese 

city. Yedo (" Estuary Gate "), as it used to 

be called, was meant to be a fortress, not a 

great city. The strategic value of a place at 

the head of a deeply penetrating bay, where 

the northern and central parts of the island meet, 

was first recognized by a certain warrior, named 

Ota Dokwan, in the middle of the fifteenth 

century. His idea was to guard, at this point 

of vantage, the approaches to the wide and 

fertile Kuwanto Plain from the sea and from 

the north, just as the old feudal fortress of 

Odawara guarded it where the Tokaido (Eastern 

Highway) debouches from the mountain barrier 

which forms its western fringe. In this view 

271 



Japan's Inheritance 

Hideyoshi and, subsequently, lyeyasu concurred ; 
and, when the victor of Sekigahara made him- 
self Shogun, at the beginning of the seventeenth 
century, the fishing village at the Estuary Gate 
became his capital. Ota's fortress was con- 
verted, at immense toil, into a castle on a magni- 
ficent scale ; and on the site of this castle, in 
happier days, stands the Emperor's palace. 

Meanwhile, its adoption as the seat of the 
Shogunate during two and a half centuries had 
been the making of Yedo. For every one of 
the great Daimyos had been compelled to take 
up his abode, with due pomp and state, in the 
Shogun's capital during half of the year, or 
during alternate years. With them, of course, 
came many of their samurai retainers, and in 
their train traders and artisans. The transfer- 
ence hither of the Imperial Court, in 1868, gave 
a further impetus to the growth of the city, 
which, during the Meiji Era, has also shown 
remarkable commercial development. Tokyo 
still remains, however, the official and social, 
rather than the industrial, centre. Osaka, on 
the other hand, though it too can boast a fine 
feudal castle, has always been in the main a 
business centre, built and conducted on strictly 
utilitarian lines. Such monstrosities as factory 
chimneys are not unknown in Tokyo, but they 
are numbered by the hundred in Osaka. The 
atmosphere has long since lost that limpid sweet - 

272 



Centres of Population 

ness which the divine creators of Nippon intended 
to be its characteristic property. It has 
therefore become, in more senses than one, 
un- Japanese — resembhng rather that of the 
prosaic Enghsh " cottonopoHs." From this 
most materiahstic mlllea of swarming streets and 
canals, ahve with trading craft, feudaUsm has 
deemed it the better part to flee. Here, if 
nowhere else in Japan, officialism hides its 
diminished head, and even the old castle has to 
do duty as the municipal waterworks. 

Japanese cities in general have been described 
as " collections of shanties." That there is 
justice in the reproach those of the Japanese 
who have travelled in the West are prepared 
to admit. But there is reason on their side. 
" The four great factors of everyday life," says 
a Japanese saw, " are earthquakes, thunderbolts, 
fires, and fathers." In the matter of civic and 
domestic architecture allowance must certainly 
be made for the influence of two, at any rate, 
of these portentous forces. The daily and hourly 
possibility of an earthquake has dictated the con- 
struction of flimsy wooden buildings which yield 
a little to the movement and thus, peradventure, 
escape destruction ; yet which, if destroyed, can 
be replaced easily and at small cost. But these 
same flimsy buildings, forbidding alike architec- 
tural effort and effect, are veritable food for 

flames. Thus the factor of the earthquake puts 

273 8 



Japan's Inheritance 



the Japanese builder upon the horns of a 
dilemma. In the circumstances it is not sur- 
prising that the line of least resistance should 
be chosen, and a building made which, if it 
collapses, will neither utterly destroy nor be 
utterly destroyed, and out of which the tenant 
can escape at a moment's notice, with most of 
his chattels in his hands. 

In one respect Tokyo offers a decided con- 
trast to the provincial cities. Being the seat 
of a Government conducted on Western lines, 
it has, amid its " shanties," some stately piles 
of brick and stone, homes of naval, military, 
and other departments of State. There have 
also arisen, though hardly to the city's advantage, 
not a few specimens of a hybrid " semi -foreign " 
style — specially noticeable in the Ginza, the 
principal shopping thoroughfare in the busy com- 
mercial district which has sprung up between 
the Palace and the mouth of the Sumida River, 
where Japanese storekeepers have taken to the 
previously unheard-of practice of displaying their 
choicest goods behind capacious plate-glass 
windows. In some provincial centres, it is true, 
rectangular wooden structures in " foreign " 
style, but ungainly to a degree, have been erected 
to do duty as police-stations, local government 
offices, and schools. Foreign influence may also 
be traced in the former treaty ports, where it 
is not an uncommon thing to find native hotels 

274 




A TOKYO THOROUGHFARE : NEAR NIHONBASHI. 




OUTSKIRTS OF YOKOHAMA, LOOKING SOUTH. 
Tlic cheny-ivecs in the foregnnind fonii part of a tempts garden occnpying the slope of the hill, 

To face p. 274. 



Centres of Population 

of two or three stories in hieight, with, however, 
the Japanese style retained — the most dangerous 
combination of all, whether in respect of earth- 
quake or of fire. But the strictly provincial 
city adheres to the native style ; and the sole 
relief from the mean and monotonous aspect of 
the streets is provided by the sweeping, graceful 
curves of some outstanding temple-roof. 

It used to be said of Tokyo that, as the result 
of fires, the city was renewed every twenty-five 
years. This somewhat picturesque statement 
must be taken as applying to the five wards, 
out of the fifteen into which the city is divided, 
which lie on either bank of the Sumidagawa. 
Built on low marshy ground, much of which has 
been reclaimed from the sea, this section of the 
city is the busiest, the poorest, and the most 
crowded. In the sequel of the oft-recurring con- 
flagrations, the authorities widen and improve 
the streets, but as the character of the houses 
remains the same, the lack of dignity is not 
remedied. The remaining wards, disposed in 
a great ring about the central or Kojimachi ward, 
which in its turn surrounds the moated enclosure 
of the Palace, are mainly residential, and laid 
out with less economy of space. It is here, if 
anywhere, that the " magnificent distances " said 
to be characteristic of Tokyo are to be encoun- 
tered. The distances, indeedi, do not admit of 
dispute — there is no lack of mileage in Azabu, 

275 



Japan's Inheritance 

in the one direction, or in Hongo, in the other. 
•Whether they are magnificent is another matter. 

It is in the consideration of these distances 
that Tokyo's deficiencies in the matter of com- 
munications become apparent. There is, of 
course, the humble jlnrlklsha — and it must be 
admitted that the up-to-date variety of this man- 
drawn vehicle, with pneumatic tyres and ball- 
bearing bicycle-pattern wheels (improvements 
strenuously opposed by the men themselves, on 
the score of cost), marks a great advanqe on 
the original types. Of hackney carriages there 
are a few ; and motor-cars — private, not public 
— begin to thread the streets, to the great peril 
of baby-carrying children, who from time im- 
memorial have regarded them as their play- 
ground. For the rest, there is an electric 
tramway service, with a tariff so jealously 
guarded by its myriad patrons that efficient work- 
ing is almost out of the question. The most 
serious riots which Tokyo has witnessed in 
modern times have arisen out of a proposed 
increase of a farthing in the fare for a 4 -mile 
route. 

Of railway communication within the city 
itself there is none. " Tubes " are unknown 
in the Japanese metropolis. In the busiest part 
of the city the ground, " made " as it is, as 
well as intersected by numerous creeks cut with 
a single eye to the filling of the Palace moats, 

276 



Centres of Population 

would hardly lend itself to tunnelling. The 
principal line of railway in the Empire, the 
Tokaido, enters the capital on the south, termi- 
nating at the Shimbashi station. The Northern 
Railway leaves it at Uyeno, at the other end of 
the city. A third line, feeding the provinces 
due east of Tokyo Bay, leaves from the Ryogoku 
terminus, in Honjo-ku, on the farther bank of 
the Sumida. Between these several termini there 
is no direct connection by rail — a grave defect, 
for which the obvious remedy is a central station 
at or near the Nihonbashi — a famous spot, which 
is not only the heart of Tokyo, but the topo- 
graphical centre of Japan, and the official 
starting-point for the measurement of distances 
in every direction. In addition to this project, 
now under contemplation, a scheme has been 
mooted for the construction of an overhead rail- 
way, linking up the principal parts of the city. 
When these two schemes have reached fulfil- 
ment, but not till then, Tokyo will be able to 
boast a system of communications worthy in 
some measure of its size and importance. 

From the foregoing it will appear that the 
stream of Tokyo's life and traffic runs north and 
south rather than east and west. The medial 
position of the Imperial Palace, indeed, presents 
an insuperable obstacle in the latter direction. 
At either end of what might be termed the axial 
line lie the city's parks and pleasure resorts. 

277 



Japan's Inheritance 



These certainly present as much contrast as could 
be wished. Shiba, in the south, with the tombs 
of seven Shoguns and as many solemn temples, 
has a gravely beautiful aspect. Hibiya, more 
centrally situated, is aggressively modern, with 
band-stands, base-ball grounds, and — most re- 
markable of all — " foreign " flower-beds in place 
of the eternal landscape garden. It is the 
Trafalgar Square and the Hyde Park of Tokyo 
in one ; Socialists would there hold demon- 
strations, if they dared. On the northern out- 
skirts of the city and on rising ground com- 
manding it is Uyeno, the largest of them all, 
and not many years ago the property of a 
Shogun. Over it hangs the air of learning and 
the fine arts ; and, appropriately enough, it has 
been the home of numerous exhibitions. From 
its shady heights one looks due east, and down- 
wards, upon Tokyo's real playground — Asakusa 
Park. Here may be seen two famous Buddhist 
temples — the Higashi Hongwanji, with its 140- 
mat nave, and the popular Asakusa Kwannon, 
with encircling pleasure-grounds, where people 
at prayers and people at play jostle one another 
from morn to dewy eve. Neither their pleasure 
nor their religion do the Japanese take sadly. 
One need only go to Asakusa to be convinced 
of the truth that " the mbst popular form of 
worship in Japan is the festival." 

A little beyond Asakusa may be seen in nightly 

278 



Centres of Population 

operation Japan's attempt at the solution of the 
problem, known as the social evil, which through 
all time has vexed humanity. Every Japanese 
town has its Yoshiwara, but in Tokyo that quarter 
constitutes in itself a town of between forty and! 
fifty thousand inhabitants. A high wall sur- 
rounds the district, with formidable gates at 
intervals, where policemen stand on guard — a 
visible intimation of the fact that the system 
flourishes under municipal surveillance. The 
houses, many of them of palatial dimensions, 
are brilliantly illuminated at night. The un- 
fortunate inmates are literally sold into slavery — 
often by their parents — under contract for a 
certain term of years, though the proprietor of 
the establishment usually finds some very cogent 
reason why the actual termination of the con- 
tract should never come. On the ground floor 
of the houses — three-storied buildings are here 
the rule rather than the exception — the inmates 
sit, gorgeously attired, painted and bedecked, 
with nothing but wooden bars between them and 
the stream of passers-by. While the system has 
the advantages, claimed for it by its defenders, 
of circumscription of the haunts of vice and of 
medical supervision of its chief victims, it may 
be questioned whether either of these measures 
is as effective as is generally supposed. 

The growth of Tokyo, for reasons already 
stated, is not like that of London, in an east 

279 



Japan's Inheritance 



and west direction, but rather towards the north 
and south — i.e., along the river and the coast. 
Especially is this the case towards the south, 
where Shinagawa and Omori, on Tokyo Bay, 
formerly separate townships, are now virtually 
suburbs of the metropolis. Enthusiastic Japanese 
look forward to the time when Tokyo and its 
ocean-port, Yokohama, i8 miles to the south, 
will be, to all intents and purposes, one vast 
aggregation of streets and houses. The railway 
line between the two places is already the best 
served in the country — express trains covering 
the distance without a stop in twenty -seven 
minutes ; an electric railway also connects the 
outlying districts of both cities. Other projects 
in the same direction are a steamboat service 
on up-to-date lines and a ship canal. 

While the Japanese are intensely proud of their 
capital and speak, almost with adoration, of 
" ascending " to it — just as Englishmen, in 
direct contradiction of physical realities, speak 
of going " up " to London — they are wont to 
point to Kyoto as the typically Japanese, as Well 
as the most beautiful, of Japanese cities. In 
a sense, of course, Kyoto — or Saikyo (West 
Capital) as it was officially renamed when, in 
1868, Yedo's name was changed to Tokyo — is 
unique among the cities of Japan, for it has 
been laid out with mathematical precision on a 
definite plan, borrowed, they say, from Peking. 

280 



Centres of Population 

This is the work of the Emperor Kwammu, who 
moved hither his capital from. Nara in 782 A.D, 
The city, rectangular in shape, measures 17,530 
feet by 15,080, the longer dimension running 
north and south. A thoroughfare 280 feet wide 
divides it into an eastern and a western half, 
practically equal in area ; each of these is 
divided into 9 jo (districts) of equal size, and 
each jo into 4 squares, 16 divisions, 64 streets, 
and 256 " rows," each row containing 8 house- 
lots measuring 100 feet by 50. In the middle 
of the northern face of the rectangle the Imperial 
Palace occupies a space equal to the one-fifteenth 
part of the whole. Here, for well over a 
thousand years, seventy-seven Mikados held their 
court ; though the establishment of a military 
feudalism in the twelfth century deprived them 
of all real power. 

Through force of circumstances, however, 
Kyoto has not been able to live up to the 
large designs of its founder. During the two 
and a half centuries of the Shogunate, Tokyo 
being the real seat of government, pelf as well 
as power passed from the West Capital to the 
East. The comparative penury of the Mikado's 
retainers found expression in the meanness of 
the houses, which the ample dimensions of the 
streets only served to emphasize. Kyoto's 
present population is but half of what it was 
in the days of its prime, and the shrinking pro- 

281 



Japan's Inheritance 

cess is not at an end. Nevertheless, though the 
ancient capital is out of touch with the busthng, 
materiahstic hfe of the New Japan, time cannot 
rob it of the riches of its historical and religious 
associations, nor of the natural beauties of its 
situation. Meanwhile it remains, as it has been 
for centuries, the principal home of Japanese 
art in its most familiar forms — cloisonne, netsuke, 
lacquer-work, faience, and sword-making ; and 
many are the treasures of its i,o8o temples, not 
the least interesting of which is the Sanju- 
san-gendo, the venerable home of the 33,333 
Buddhas . 

The ports opened by treaty to foreign trade 
and residence some fifty years ago, being favour- 
ably situated both from the commercial and from 
the residential point of view, have attracted a 
considerable population, which, moreover, is con- 
tinually on the increase. Yokohama and Kobe, 
the two chief of these, have each an aggregate 
of about 400,000, included in which are the 
two largest foreign comtnunities in Japan . While 
the first of these ports serves as the outlet for 
the Tokyo district, the other fulfils a similar 
function for Kyoto, Osaka, and the Gokinai, or 
" Five Home Provinces " of Old Japan, which 
lie grouped about the head of the Idzumi Nada, 
at the gates of the Inland Sea. Appropriately 
enough, both Yokohama and Kobe, disregarding 
the natural trend of the coastline, look towards 

282 



Centres of Population 

their respective sources of growth, and from an 
equal distance. Yokohama, on a bay opening 
south, occupies the northern side of a projecting 
spur, and thus faces the capital across some 
20 miles of sea and tidal foreshore. Kobe, on 
a bay opening westwards, looks to the east across 
Osaka Bay, towards the city of that name. In 
either case the former " concession " or " settle- 
ment " occupies the central position on the sea- 
front, with a " bund " and a few parallel streets, 
in foreign style, flanked by hotels, consulates, 
clubs, business premises, " godowns," and shops, 
while behind and about swarms the native city, 
relieved by a few official buildings. In Yoko- 
hama, occupying as it does a level plain — once 
a marsh, pure and simple — between two parallel 
ridges or " bluffs " running towards the sea, the 
demarcation of the foreign from the native part 
of the town is more evident than at Kobe. In 
the case of the northern port the entire " bluff! " 
on the one side has been taken up by the foreign 
community as a residential quarter, while the 
whole of the other is covered by the compara- 
tively insignificant houses of the Japanese. The 
situation of Kobe does not permit of any such 
arrangement. The city rises evenly — and with 
excellent effect — from the shore of a crescent - 
shaped harbour along the slopes of a wooded 
3,000-feet range of granitic hills ; no natural 

division between the two communities exists. 

283 



Japan's Inheritance 

However, the strategical advantages (as they 
might be called) enjoyed by the former settle- 
ment at Yokohama are, in these post -revision 
days, the subject of a not unnatural envy on 
the part of the Japanese, whose policy it is to 
abolish even the appearance of privilege. 
Accordingly, the celebration, three years ago, 
of the jubilee of the city's opening to foreign 
trade was signalized by the ejection of the 
foreigners from their cricket -ground — a beauti- 
ful sheet of turf in the centre of the city, which 
for a generation had been their pride and joy 
— on the score that the ground was required 
for municipal purposes. 

Though all parts of the Japanese Empire are 
now open to foreigners for purposes of resi- 
dence, it is not in the least likely that the future 
will again witness such aggregations of foreigners 
as those at Kobe and Yokohama. While the 
foreign population at these places is stationary, the 
number of Japanese is steadily on the increase. 
Nagasaki, however, furnishes an example of an 
all-round decline. The development of trans- 
continental traffic, and of Shimonoseki and Moji 
— the one as a steam-packet station for Korea 
and the other as a coal port — have left the third, 
and the most beautiful, of the old treaty-ports 
somewhat behind. On the other hand, ports 
which have made headway in recent years are 
Yokkaichi, on Owari Bay, near the busy manu- 

284 



Centres of Population 

facturing centre of Nagoya ; Shimizu, near 
Shizuoka, on the Gulf of Suruga^ outlet for the 
chief tea -growing district of Japan ; Tsuruga, 
on the West Coast, the point of departure for 
Vladivostock ; and — in Yezo or Hokkaido — 
Otaru, near the official capital, Sapporo, and 
Hakodate on the strategically important Tsugaru 
Strait, a place which is both a port and a fortress, 
recalling in its physical configuration the water- 
ing-place of Llandudno, and, from another point 
of view, Gibraltar. 

While, then, Tokyo may be said to be repre- 
sentative of the many-sided activity of present- 
day Japan — from officialism and la haute 
politique to a wrestling match at the Ekoin 
Temple and the viewing of the cherry-blossoms 
at Mukojima — nevertheless, as a city, it cannot 
be called typically Japanese. Neither can 
Kyoto, the uniquely planned, be so considered ; 
nor, indeed, can Osaka, with its all-pervading 
commercialism ; still less any of the open ports, 
which have come to a greater or less extent 
under foreign influence. To find the city which 
sets forth that large part of the national life 
which is neither ultra-modern nor hopelessly 
behind the times, which, while cognizant of up- 
to-date ideas, has not yet parted with the old, 
we must look in those provincial centres which, 
not many years ago, were the headquarters of 
some great Daimyate, or clan, and thus retain 

285 



Japan's Inheritance 

amid the comtnercial activities of their heimin 
a feudal aristocracy of their own. Of such are 
Kagoshima and Kumatnoto, in the south ; Hiro- 
shima and Kanazawa, in the west ; Kofu and 
Mito, in the east ; Sendai and Wakamatsu, in 
the north. These are considerable towns, with 
populations ranging from 60,000 to 130,000. 
Each has its characteristic industry and its local 
colour ; and over each frown the ruins of a 
Dmmyd's castle, the grounds surrounding which 
a paternal Government has turned into public 
pleasure -gardens . 

The fires which so frequently devastate 
Japanese cities are commonly set down as 
an after -effect of earthquakes. In point of fact, 
the percentage of fires indirectly attributable to 
earthquakes is comparatively small. When the 
use of the andon — a frail wooden stand-lamp, 
with paraffin-oil for the illuminant — was well- 
nigh universal, it was doubtless the case that even 
a slight earthquake sometimes gave rise to a 
conflagration. But a playing child or a restless 
sleeper constituted just as great a source of 
danger. Nowadays, however, hanging-lamps 
are nearly always used, while in all the principal 
cities — and even in comparatively remote villages 
where water-power is available — electric lighting 
is the rule. Among the causes of fires in 
Japanese cities, unfortunately, incendiarism ranks 
high, and the motive for the crime — despite the 

286 



Centres of Population 

fact that the law permits its punishment, in 
extreme cases, by death — is only too often a 
mercenary one. The privations of the daikan 
(cold season) have at least as much to do with 
the numerous conflagrations at that time of the 
year as has the so-called " winter frequency " 
of earthquakes. 

The writer has vivid recollections of a serious 
fire in Yokohama a few years ago, which laid 
in ashes some five hundred houses, his own 
narrowly escaping inclusion in the number. Fed 
by a strong north-westerly wind, the flames 
carried all before them, and nothing but a broad 
creek which lay athwart their track prevented 
them from driving a fiery plough across the city. 
As is usual on these occasions — despite the hour, 
two in the morning — almost the entire popula- 
tion, and certainly all the thieves, found them- 
selves in the vicinity. Through the crowd long 
lanes were kept by the police, along which 
hurried a stream of fugitives from the threatened 
houses, bearing bundles of futon i and other 
household goods to some place of safety. Among 
the onlookers on the opposite bank of the creek 
— the most favoured and the safest point of 
vantage — was the proprietor of a large three - 
storied hotel which fronted on the waterway, and, 
being clearly doomed, had long since been aban- 
doned. Practically everything of value had been 

^ Wadded quilts used for bedding. 
287 



Japan's Inheritance 

removed — the building was, of course, insured ; 
the firemen were impotent, and it only remained 
to watch the end. This the owner, with the 
characteristic nonchalance of his race, prepared 
to do. I have to this day a lively remembranoe 
of the manner in which the Moloch of Japanese 
civilization set about devouring the choicest 
morsel it had encountered that night. From 
the roof of an adjoining house the flames literally 
leaped at the doomed hotel, taking it, as it were, 
by the waist — i.e., in the first floor. To get 
well through the wooden outer wall was the work 
of, perhaps, a minute. Thereafter it became 
indeed a " royal progress." From one karakaml 
(paper partition) to the next, across yellow 
tatami, gleaming in the fierce red light, long 
tongues of fire flung themselves faster than 
human feet could fly. In five minutes every 
wall, whether of wood or paper, had vanished, 
and the whole building stood, a skeleton of 
blazing beams, bearing aloft the only solid part 
of a Japanese house — the heavy-tiled roof. In 
another five minutes this fell in with a resounding 
crash and a mighty shower of sparks. I turned 
to the proprietor, with whom I had a passing 
acquaintance. He was unconcernedly discussing 
with a neighbour the origin of the outbreak, 
which, it appeared, was already common know- 
ledge. The fire had been started in the three - 
roomed dwelling of a sumi-ya (charcoal dealer) 

288 



Centres of Population 

a little way down the street, with the aid of 
a few rags soaked in paraffin-oil, and in the 
hope of securing the princely sum of yen loo, 
for which the said shanty had been insured. 
Instead, however, the courts decreed him twenty 
years' penal servitude. 



289 



CHAPTER XVI 

EDUCATION AND RELIGION 

The child and his sovereign — The child and his parent — 
The child and his teacher — Education and the ideograph 
— The educational system — The teaching of English — 
The missionary and the student — Are the Japanese 
religious ? — Religion and the State — Christianity in 
Japan — Foreign irreligion — " Morals " and the Rescript 
— Morality a relative term — Different points of view — 
The yujo and the geisha — Do geisha dance ? — Womanly 
women 

" What will you give the Emperor, the Lord of 

Heaven?" So runs the first question of a 

Japanese child's catechism. And the child 

makes answer, " All my possessions, and my life 

when he requires it." In a Christian home of 

the West, the child is taught to regard God as 

the Giver of all good. So is the Japanese child — 

only his God is the Emperor. 

By the Confucian code of ethics, which holds 

sway in China, obedience to parents is given the 

place of honour among the virtues. Loyalty to 

the State comes next. In Japan this order is 

290 



Education and Religion 

reversed. The distinction is significant. Would 
it be too much to attribute to this alone the differ- 
ence in worldly position which now exists between 
the two countries? Hardly. 

Now filial piety and devotion to the Sovereign 
rest, for their force as motives, upon the same 
principle — that of ancestor-worship. Hence the 
two may be regarded as part of one whole — and 
that a deep-laid, all-embracing patriotism. " My 
country right or wrong " is the first article in the 
creed of others besides Japanese citizens, but 
here, as in no other part of the world, that 
country is identified with its Imperial Head, so 
that the national welfare and advancement, the 
successes of Japanese arms in the stricken field 
and on the ocean wave, are all ascribed to the 
virtues of the Heaven -born Emperor. 

Education and religion are, therefore, more 
closely connected in Japan than, probably, in 
any other country. More definitely, too, than in 
any other country are they used as a means to 
an end. That end is patriotism. One might 
even go further, and say that, with the Japanese, 
to all intents and purposes, patriotism' is religion. 
At any rate, if their patriotism — I use the word 
in its widest sense — be taken from' their religion 
the residue is a poor and thin affair, 

Japan has been called " the children's Para- 
dise." " The children are never punished," says 

one globe-trotter ; and the next, to go one better, 

291 



Japan's Inheritance 

explains that " they do no wrong." Neither, I 
suppose, had ever heard of that mischievous 
twelve-year-old rascal of whom Mrs. Hugh 
Fraser tells, who crowned a series of practical 
jokes upon his paternal grandmother by nailing 
a dead crow to her shutter and calling her to 
see the beautiful procession that was passing. 
" Itazura desu nef is probably the most frequent 
expression on the lips of a Japanese mother with 
respect to her offspring, and, quite properly, it 
is often accompanied by some practical mark of 
disapproval. When living for some months in 
the interior, in a Japanese house, I was much 
concerned at the oft -repeated crying Of a little 
girl of five or six in a neighbouring establish- 
ment. Her mother was given to the use — 
perhaps oftener than was necessary — of the moxa, 
a burning weed applied to the skin in such a 
manner as, sometimes, to leave a scar. This used 
to be the recognized form of punishment for 
children, though now less commonly resorted to. 
Sometimes a burning joss -stick is the instrument 
of punishment. In the case in question the little 
damsel had not acquired the art of bearing the 
pain without crying, but intercession on her 
behalf proved unavailing. 

While, then, it is not true that Japanese 
children are never punished, it is probably true 
that they might with advantage be punished 

oftener than they are. If there are more children 

292 



Education and Religion 

spoiled by over-indulgence in the United States 
of America than in any other country, Japan 
would probably come next. Solomon's dictum 
about sparing the rod does not pass for gospel 
in either country. So the American youth who 
went to school with a revolver in his pocket, that 
he might resist any visitation of discipline upon 
his own person, has his counterpart in the 
Japanese school-striker. Unpopular masters in 
provincial middle schools have not infrequently 
been made the victims of a general strike, and 
principals have been known to resign their posts 
as the simplest way out of the difficulty. Some 
of these affairs may be the fault of the teachers. 
As an educational handbook naively puts it, " the 
introduction of the Occidental system of learning 
and the displacing of venerable teachers of the 
old system with young teachers devoid of experi- 
ence and virtue have undermined the laudable 
custom that formerly existed between masters 
and pupils." Unquestionably the status of the 
Japanese schoolmaster, social and financial, 
might with advantage be improved ; but it would 
be difficult to conceive of such situations arising 
in, say, an English school, though the English 
boy is not lacking in spirit. Most people who 
have travelled in the interior will agree that the 
manners of Japanese children leave room for 
improvement. Curiosity in itself is natural and 
unobjectionable, but the widespread use of the 

293 



Japan's Inheritance 



expression " ijln baka " (foreign fool) reflects 
less on the children who use it than on those 
entrusted with their upbringing. It gives oppor- 
tunity to the enemies of Japan to point the finger, 
and confirms the suggestion that the politeness 
of the Japanese people is, after all, only skin- 
deep. On the whole, if there were a little more 
correction at home and better discipline at school, 
the Japanese youth would be a less wayward and 
more agreeable person than he is at present. 
And those looking on in the conviction that " the 
boy is father to the man " would feel more at 
ease. 

The educational system comprises the three 
orthodox grades, elementary, middle, and higher, 
the commencing age in each case being 6, 1 2, 
and 17. Elementary schooling is compulsory 
for all classes. From the point of attainment an 
average pupil of the middle and higher grades 
shows at least as much general knowledge and 
capacity as one of the same age in Occidental 
countries. A great deal of time, however, is 
lost over the laborious task of committing to 
memory some thousands of Chinese ideographs. 
A knowledge of five thousand is necessary for 
ordinary purposes, of ten thousand to establish a 
claim to scholarship. Though much current 
matter is published in the hirakana and katakana 
syllabaries — which with their two hundred 
comparatively simple characters represent a 

294 



Education and Religion 

stumbling effort after the phonetic system — to 
all who are unversed in the Chinese word-pictures 
the classics and the official language remain a 
sealed book. To get over this difificulty school- 
days are increased in number and school -hours 
prolonged— with consequent injury to health and, 
especially, to the eyesight. Though inherited 
disease is responsible for much of the prevailing 
blindness and semi-blindness among the people, 
this poring over Chinese hieroglyphics, often by 
the indifferent light of the andort,^ is probably 
responsible for mce. Many of the leading 
Japanese papers now print a page in English, 
and a movement is on foot for the use of Romaji 
— the writing of Japanese in the Roman char- 
acters. This last is not making the headway it 
should, partly because of the difficulty of cor- 
rectly representing the sounds of Japanese words, 
partly because the literary and official worlds 
look coldly on the movement. The difficulty 
of transliteration is not, however, insuperable. 
The abandonment of the Chinese script for every- 
day use is one of those changes which must come. 
For Japan's own sake, the sooner the better. 

If Japanese education, regarded as a prepara- 
tion for life, has one fault imore than another, it 
is in the inculcation of undue dependence on the 
powers that be. One of the doubtful legacies 
of Confucianism, it is seen in the unquestioning 

^ An oil-lamp on a wooden stand with a tissue-paper shade. 

295 



Japan's Inheritance 

obedience, not to say veneration, accorded to the 
pettiest official. Its effect is to discourage 
initiative and private enterprise as being better 
left to " the authorities." Though the Japanese 
are not wanting in inventiveness, their capacity 
for adaptation and assimilation is greater. The 
idea prevails that for an enterprise to succeed it 
must be backed by the State, and this belief 
seems to be strengthened in practice. All under- 
takings on a large scale, if not actually in- 
augurated by the Government, are in receipt of 
official support. Conversely, enterprises not thus 
advantaged stand little chance of success. 

English is taught in the 'three hundred middle 
schools of the Empire, and, in the higher, a 
second foreign language — French or German- 
finds a place. A few of the middle and most of 
the higher schools employ foreigners for the 
purposes of instruction, but the bulk of Young 
Japan learns its English from Japanese teachers 
whose knowledge of the language is fragrnentary 
or, at best, of the reading -book order. In word- 
construction and syntactical arrangement the two 
languages are absolutely antipodal. So simple 
an English sentence as " There is a bird on that 
tree " appears to the Japanese mind, which knows 
not prepositions, articles, and indefinites, highly 
anomalous and idiomatic, full of snares and pit- 
falls. Add to this the characteristic eagerness of 
the Japanese student, impatient of delay and in- 

296 




STUDENTS AT WORK : KEIO LMVliKSITY, TOKYO. 




A JAPANESE WEDDING. 



The bride, wearing her bridal fillet, is on the right; the groom, next to her. Sake is being 
served in cups. The storks are emblematic of long life. 



To face p. 29 



Education and Religion 

capable of being in a hurry slowly, and you have, 
for a result, the amazing vagaries of " English 
as she is Japped " — despair of the foreign pro- 
fessor and perennial source of amusement for 
such of the foreign Press as are wont to make 
sport of Japanese foibles. ^ 

It is in the simple everyday conversational 
English that the student fails. Where his weak- 
ness lies none knows better than he. When, 
therefore, having spied a foreigner, he decides 
that he is neither French, Russian, nor German, 
he loses no time in opening the attack — often with 
the most startling remarks—" What you go ? " "I 
have delight to behold your face," and so forth. 
In this quenchless thirst for conversational 
English the proselytizing missionary sees his 
chance, and takes it. He opens an evening 
school for English at a shilling a month, and by 
dexterous management interpolates some Gospel 
with his grammar. Seldom, however, does the 
Japanese student-fly really walk into the mis- 
sionary-spider's parlour. He will join lustily in 
the singing of " The sweet by-and-by," " There 
is a fountain filled with blood," and other evan- 

^ Typical examples of Japanese- English meet the eye in 
the vicinity of foreign settlements. Thus a laundry displays 
the sign "jLadies washed iour yen a hundred," and a butcher 
who desires prospective customers to know that he does not 
confine himself to beef and mutton announces " Hen Met " 
for sale. There is reason to believe that practical jokers of 
foreign extraction are responsible for some of these. 

297 



Japan's Inheritance 



gelistic gems, but, while absorbing the grammar, 
will leave the Gospel for the next who com'es. 
Are the Japanese religious ? The question is 
more often asked than answered. This is not 
because there is any lack of religions. Confu- 
cianism apart — for that is out of date and receives 
a moiety of the contempt which your modern 
Japanese entertains for all things Chinese — there 
still remain Buddhism, Shintoism, and Chris- 
tianity. Speaking generally, Shintoism is the 
religion of the classes. Buddhism of the masses ; 
the one official, the other popular. " The way 
of the gods," with a " cluster of picturesque 
myths " for its basis, has little by way of " body " 
but worship of ancestors and, particularly, of the 
Imperial ancestors. Hence its importance in 
official eyes, though it leaves the average wor- 
shipper cold. Another drawback is that it 
involves contemplation of the dead Past, with 
little bearing on the ever-changing Present and 
still less on that glorious Future of which all 
Japanese live in hope. To a strictly practical 
people Buddhism with its theories of reincarna- 
tion makes a stronger appeal. There is more 
warmth, more colour, more nearness in its creed. 
Many a simple peasant believes that his humble 
sen dropped in at the temple money-box will 
through the mercy of Amida secure him all 
manner of material benefits in life — good har- 
vests, deliverance from sickness, and the like. 

298 



Education and Religion 

Nevertheless, there is a large and growing class, 
especially among educated folk, who, while 
recognizing the claims of Shintoism as a State 
religion, have in their hearts no use for any 
religion at all. 

The men at the head of the Japanese polity are 
wise enough to know that irreligion for a State 
is bad. In recent years they have given indica- 
tions that in their opinion a great deal of 
irreligion exists. In their characteristically 
naive, though not wholly illogical, fashion they 
argue that there must be something wrong with 
the religion, or religions, and that it, or they, must 
forthwith be taken in hand, so to speak, for 
alterations and repairs. In this way they might 
be made more attractive, and at the same time 
more advantageous, to the nation at large. From 
this they proceed to inquire, after the manner 
which fifty years of adoption of Western institu- 
tions have almost made a habit. What is this 
Christian religion which the missionaries from 
America and England preach ? Has it any 
desirable or useful features which may with 
advantage be incorporated in our own religion ? 
Or stay, might it be possible, by a wise process 
of selection, to take what is best in the three 
religions and construct a new and excellent 
religion, especially suited to our needs ? 

So, at first, they resorted to the expedient of 

an edict directing the principals of all elemen- 

299 



Japan's Inheritance 



tary schools to march their pupils at regular 
intervals to the nearest Shinto shrine, there to 
worship the spirits of Imperial, and other, ances- 
tors. This having raised an outcry from the 
adherents of Buddhism and Christianity as being 
a violation of that article in the Constitution 
which guarantees complete religious liberty, the 
leaders of Japanese officialdom' " tried again." 
The Vice-Minister for Home Affairs summoned 
a conference of representatives of the three 
religions, with a view to discovering a common 
basis of operation which, conceivably, might 
serve as the foundation of a new national creed. 
Though nothing so far has come of this action, 
we have not heard the last of it, or of its effects. 
Meanwhile, it retains immense significance not 
only as a revelation of the working of the official 
mind, but as an expression of dissatisfaction with 
the present religious life of the nation. 

For Christianity to be thus officially recognized 
was something of a compliment, and might be 
construed as implying progress. Some headway 
has undoubtedly been made — there are eight hun- 
dred missionaries in Japan, with ample funds at 
their disposal, and many of the finest building 
sites in the large centres are the property of 
various Mission Boards. Nevertheless, the 
progress made has not come up to expectations, 
and a conference of Mission Boards became 

necessary to inquire into the cause. It is to be 

300 



Education and Religion 

feared, for reasons already suggested, that much 
of the progress placed on record is more apparent 
than real. Probably the greatest obstacle to the 
spread of Christianity in Japan, as in other lands, 
is the never-ending war, on matters of doctrinal 
detail, between the various sects which set out 
to declare to " the heathen " the one and the 
same Gospel. If the forces of Christianity, as 
presented in the mission field, could combine to 
show to the non-Christian world a solid and 
united front, their message would stand a better 
chance of carrying conviction. 

Then there is the heavy handicap of the fact 
that Christianity is a foreign religion. Unless 
the Japanese people are satisfied that they can be 
Christians and loyal Japanese at the same time, 
missions will labour in vain. " The national 
spirit is closely involved with the ideas of inde- 
pendence and responsibility, and, so far as Japan 
^s concerned, missionaries who ignored or 
violated the national spirit were only courting 
disaster, while any apparent denationalization on 
the part of Christian converts would surely bring 
upon them persecution." ' The tendency of 
thought among Japanese Christians is all in the 
direction of the autonomous church on national 
lines. They will not submit to be ruled by 
Mission Boards in London and New York ; they 

» Bishop Honda, of South Tokyo, at the World Missionary 
Conference, 1910. 

301 



Japan's Inheritance 



look for full ecclesiastical self-government. Up 
to that goal — even though it means his own 
effacement — the missionary must work. Other- 
wise, there is the fear that the Japanese may 
turn from " foreign " religion to foreign 
irreligion. 

This, indeed, is the greatest danger of all. The 
nations which have roused the East are Christian 
nations, but the problem still remains whether 
Japan, as the leading Power in the Orient, "is to 
be swayed by materialism, agnosticism, or Chris- 
tianity." I The worst enemies of missionary 
effort in the Far East are the foreign commu- 
nities, and, in particular, the foreign professors, 
many of whom find in the impressionable minds 
of their Japanese students an excellent soil for 
the seeds of atheism under the guise of 
" rationalism," and follow this up by similar 
propaganda in the Press. 

The subject of " Morals " occupies the first 
place in the curricula of all Japan's public 
schools. Private institutions are permitted to 
give instruction in religion, but all such teaching 
is barred in the State schools. The teaching of 
morality is based on the late Emperor's Rescript 2 
— a sort of modern Decalogue for Young Japan— 

' Dr. J. W. Davis, of the Doshisha Theological Seminary, 
Kyoto. 

2 Promulgated in 1890. This is supplemented in the 
class-rooms by "text-books on ethics, in which stories of 
famous men and women are predominating features." 

302 



Education and Religion 

without, however, th*e sternness or the particu^ 
larization which characterizes the Mosaic code. 
Eihal piety, modesty, benevolence, and sacrifice 
are commended for acquisition by " all our good 
and faithful subjects," but there are two notable 
omissions which seem to have escaped general 
attention. No specific exhortation to honesty 
is to be found in the Rescript, nor any reference 
to sexual morality. There is no " Thou shalt 
not steal " ; there is no " Thou shalt not commit 
adultery." 

Education, everywhere, begins in the cradle. 
In the West, knowledge of life and sex is 
imparted late in life, or not at all — left, in other 
words, to be discovered as may be. Here lies 
the difference with the Japanese. The Japanese 
boy or girl grows up in this knowledge. It is 
common above-board knowledge, viewed natur- 
ally and without offence. It is thus, with them, 
no guilty secret, ignorance of which, even when 
such ignorance does not exist, must always be 
feigned. 

The results of this distinction are important. 
In the West, the term " morality " does not, in 
common usage, carry with it the collective idea, 
connoting " a bundle of habits." It is used in 
a narrow sense, to signify the possession or 
absence of a particular quality, exalted above the 
rest. Kindness, honesty, nobility of mind, refine- 
ment, courage, sincerity — all these, comparatively 

303 



Japan's Inheritance 



speaking, count for little. If the man conforms 
to the conventions which have grown up around 
the subject of sexual ethics, he is moral. If not, 
his other virtues are but a drop in the bucket. 
Sexual correctness, in other words, is made the 
criterion of morality, and, indeed, in the popular 
view, the terms are synonymous. 

With the Japanese a sense of proportion pre- 
vails. Continence is a virtue, not the virtue. 
Concubinage ^ is not in itself an immoral state 
nor resort to the Yoshiwara a deadly sin. A 
woman who for some sufficient reason has lost 
her honour does not become, ipso facto, an evil 
and abandoned creature. Many a father in 
financial straits has sold his daughter's honour 
for a sum of money, and the girl's submission 
has been a sacrifice on the high altar of filial 
piety. What, therefore, the West regards as 
woman's unpardonable sin, rendering her fit only 
for the gutter, becomes a positive virtue. Yet 
your Mrs. Grundy (with a load of envy, hatred, 
malice, and all uncharitableness in her withered 
breast ) will draw her skirts together in horror lest 
such fallen creature (all gentleness, love, and 

^ Concubinage was established under the Confucian code 
to ensure the Imperial succession. Twelve concubines were 
permitted by law for the Emperor. The present Emperor, 
as is generally known, is the son of one of these. Though 
not now recognized by law, concubinage still exists to a 
wide extent. 

304 



Education and Religion 

goodness) should contaminate by her touch the 
personification of Occidental respectability. And 
your unctuous, middle-class paterfamilias, not 
to be behind, condemns all Japanese as vicious 
and immoral. 

Reference has already been made to the insti- 
tution of the Yoshiwara . As to the ruling motive 
of its inmates, confusion still exists. Even so 
lucid a writer as Sir Henry Norman, after 
vehemently maintaining that prostitution in Japan 
differs from what it is in other countries because 
(so far as the woman is concerned) it is resorted 
to under compulsion, not from choice {i.e., filial 
piety compels the girl to obey the wish of her 
parents), proceeds to quote officials of the De- 
partment of Police as saying, " There are only 
two (chief determining causes) that recruit the 
ranks of the yujo: poverty and natural inclina- 
tion " ! 

The fact is that Nature--not convention or 
religion — is the basis of Japanese sexual ethics. 
In all save the higher classes sexual irregularities 
are not viewed in the same light as in the West. 
They may constitute indiscretion, indulgence, 
folly — they are not sin. Consequently, recourse 
to them fails to produce the degrading effect upon 
either sex which it does elsewhere. There is no 
reason under the sun why " natural inclination " 
should lead a girl to sell herself into the bondage 
of the licensed quarter. Where such inclination 

305 u 



Japan's Inheritance 



exists, it can be gratified without resort to that 
extreme . 

A somewhat similar systemi of proprietary ser- 
vice exists in the case of the geisha — that is to 
say, promising young girls are to all intents and 
purposes sold for a term of years to an entertain- 
ment agent, who often keeps a so-called " tea- 
house." From an early age the girls are trained 
in the arts of dancing, singing, sam/s^/z -playing, 
and entertaining generally. Some writers with 
more book-knowledge than experience of 
Japanese life have maintained that the geisha 
does not dance, but merely sings. ' The asser- 
tion, which is unwarrantable, rests on' the strength 
of a verbal distinction between the terms geisha 
and maiko, the latter of which signifies, literally, 
" a dancer." If any distinction can be drawn 
in practice, it is that the maiko are young geisha 
or, as a Japanese gentleman once put it to an 
inquiring foreigner, they are " embryonic 
geisha'' The term may be applied to girls under 
sixteen or seventeen years ; beyond that age they 
are called geisha. The term maiko is more 
widely used in Western Japan. In Tokyo, hang- 
yoka is the expression for a geisha of tender 
years . 

^ Cf. the correspondence columns of the Pall Mall Gazette 
containing, in February, 1912, a controversy on this subject 
in which Messrs. Diosy, Douglas Sladen, Yoshio Makino, 
and others took part. 

306 



Education and Religion 

Because the geisha, in her capacity as enter- 
tainer, constitutes a feature of Japanese dinners 
and public functions, it is unfair to put her on 
the level of the hetaira of the " nightless city." 
There are frail geisha, and there are geisha 
chaste as snow. If she must be classed for com- 
parative purposes, let her be put rather above 
than below the ballet -girl of the West, and credit 
given for a good deal more refinement in her 
composition than her Occidental counterpart can 
claim. 

So much for the lower orders of Japanese 
womanhood. What of Japanese women in 
general? All agree in giving them a very high 
place. It has been remarked that foreign resi- 
dents in Japan, with seldom a good word to say 
for Japanese men, have nothing but praise for 
the women, who (they are wont to declare) must 
belong to a different race. Women as a rule 
are sparing of praise for their own sex, but few 
foreign ladies who can number Japanese ladies 
among their friends will fail to endorse Mrs. 
Hugh Eraser's opinion : " Real womanliness 
means a high combination of sense and sweet- 
ness, valour and humility. ... In this the 
Japanese lady ranks with any woman in the world 
and passes before most of them." If sweetness 
and modesty are the choicest qualities of woman- 
hood, then, than the Japanese woman, there is 
none more womanly. It is not surprising that 

307 



Japan's Inheritance 



Japanese of the old school look askance at the 
" Higher Education of Women " movement, im- 
ported, in small doses, from America. But the 
Japanese woman will take a lot of spoiling. 

Let no one think that disagreeable women are 
quite unknown in Japan. The mother-in-law is 
the source of much mischief in Western lands ; in 
Japan she is even worse. There is no escaping 
her. For when a young couple wed in Japan 
they do not set up housekeeping afresh on their 
own account ; the young wife literally enters her 
husband's family. Not she, but her husband's 
mother, is the lady of the house. And to her 
authority in all things she must dutifully defer. 
Verily the word " obey " is writ large in the life 
of the Japanese bride. But she is happy, never- 
theless. Her perennial, infectious brightness 
is, indeed, her greatest charm. Woman in Japan 
is more than a helpmeet. She sheds about her 
the sunshine of a quiet but overflowing jole de 
vivre. And because of this quality, and the 
gladsomeness it makes, her way through life is 
like that of which the Hebrew prophet sang : — 

" How beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of him 
that bringeth good tidings." 



308 



CHARTER XVII 
THE POLITICAL FABRIC 

Fortified places — " Spionitis " — Lauirch of a super- Dread- 
nought — A nation of soldiers — Life is cheap — Militarism 
in Lotus-land — The great renunciation — The samurai 
and the State — The Constitution — The Throne and the 
Genro — The Diet and the franchise — The first Party 
Cabinet — Ito and the Seiyukai — Militarists and the Diet 
— Vox populi at last ? 

Not very long ago an unsuspecting tourist, 
accompanied by a native guide and coolie, made 
the ascent of an old volcano in the Hokkaido, 
remarkable for the magnificence of the view to 
be obtained from' the summit. Not a picture, 
however, was he permitted to take from the crest 
of the mountain, and even on descending into 
the hollow of the ancient crater it was only 
after much manoeuvring that he managed to 
secure a few snapshots of the surrounding 
rampart and of the steaming pits in the centre. 
On returning to the foot of the mountain he 
was given in charge to the police. The fact 

309 



Japan's Inheritance 



that he was an Englishman proved to be in his 
favour, and the exposures, on development, were 
seen to be harmless. Nevertheless, there was 
much coming and going of officials, much 
examination of papers, and much general 
yakamashi (noise, fuss) before the offending 
visitor was allowed to depart — a lifelong enemy 
of all things Japanese. 

The explanation of the matter lay in the fact 
that from the summit of the mountain the forti- 
fied port of Hakodate could, in clear weather, 
be discerned some 20 miles away, and the 
said mountain was therefore included in the 
" fortified zone." No doubt, to the careless 
Anglo-Saxon, such excess of caution appears 
absurd, but the Japanese cannot see it in 
that light. Where the national defences are 
concerned, he argues, nothing must be left to 
chance. Consequently, while there is probably 
no nation that knows more about its potential 
enemies, there is probably no nation about which 
its potential enemies know less. " Spionitis " is 
epidemic in certain parts of the East — Manila, 
for choice — it is endemic in Japan. But " our 
little brown allies " make no attempt to stamp 
out the disease . 

Fortified places are numerous enough in 
Japan. It may be that, on account of the pother 
that is made about them, they seem more 
numerous than they are. The fact of their 

310 



The Political Fabric 

existence is thrust upon the attention of the 
passer-by with a callous obtrusiveness that admits 
of no escape. A quiet country lane in some un- 
frequented district invites, shall we say, an early 
morning stroll, with promise of unconventional 
subjects for the photographic film. Suddenly, 
at the bend of the path, the visitor is confronted 
with a notice-board, whose very pose and white- 
ness compel consideration : " Four thousand 
three hundred and ninety-five ken south-east, 
and two thousand nine hundred and seventy- 
seven ken I (north-west-by-north of this board," it 
says with solemn precision (in English and 
Japanese), " no photographing, sketching, or 
taking of observations shall be permitted. By 
order of the War Department." If the visitor 
be wise, he will retrace his steps to the little 
yadoya (inn) whence he came, and leave his 
photographic outfit behind him. To be the 
central figure in an " affair " may seem, from 
some points of view, an interesting experience, 
but it has its drawbacks. 

This extensive recourse to land fortifications 
on the part of an insular Power suggests at 
first sight that Japan has not taken to heart the 
lesson of history as to the bearing of sea-power 
on the rise and fall of nations. Such is not, 
however, the case — there are other reasons, to 
which I shall refer later on. Naval develop - 

^ I ken = 6 feet. 
311 



Japan's Inheritance 

ment is still in the forefront of Japanese national 
policy. The process is not advertised, but 
notable exceptions occur from time to time. 
Such a one was the launch of the first super- 
Dreadnought in October, 19 lo. On the 
appointed day the central of the three inlets 
which form the picturesque but somewhat intri- 
cate harbour of Yokosuka, the Portsmouth of 
Japan, presented a scene of unusual animation. 
Had not the O-Tenshi-sama (literally " the Son 
of Heaven ") honourably condescended to be 
present? So the thousands of Japanese spec- 
tators, well supplied with expansive umbrellas of 
bamboo and oil-paper, recked not of the rain 
that descended nor the wind that blew. Civiliza- 
tion in Japan has not quite reached the stage at 
which ladies are asked to assist with launching 
ceremonies. The actual task of cutting the cord 
which supports the " dog-shores " is usually 
undertaken by the admiral in charge of the dock- 
yard. In this case the dignitary first approached 
the Emperor, and reverently informing his 
Majesty that it was proposed to name the ship 
Kawachi, that it had taken some eighteen months 
to build, and that it was now ready for launch- 
ing, received the Imperial permission to release 
the vessel from its slip. As the vast hull began 
to move down the ways, a number of pigeons, 
liberated from the bows, fluttered into the air, 
and a great shout of " Banzai! " rolled round 

312 



The Political Fabric 

the harbour. Within the memory of many of 
the cheering spectators, Japan's maritime strength 
had been embodied in a fleet of junks. Their 
enthusiasm, therefore, was natural enough. 

Behind the bulwark of her naval defences, 
fixed and floating, lies the real secret of Japan's 
position as a world-Power, which renders her 
own conquest to all intents and purposes impos- 
sible, and at the same time gives her a com- 
manding voice in the fate of Asia. Every able- 
bodied man is a soldier, and every boy preparing 
to be one. Such is the result of a system of 
universal service more rigidly and systematically 
enforced than in any European country. The 
story is told of an old couple who, in the critical 
days of the Russian War, importuned the War 
Oflice to excuse from active service the son on 
whom they depended for support, that he might 
remain with them. At length, one evening, they 
got their answer — the dead body of their son 
left at their door on a hand-cart. To get to the 
bottom of a story like this is impossible in Japan ; 
but, however the truth may be, there is no doubt 
that the Japanese soldier is trained to look upon 
death in the field as the natural issue of his 
calling, and few, indeed, are the wives and 
mothers who would permit themselves to shed 
a tear over such a circumstance. 

Two other factors go to the making of the 
Japanese character from the military point of 

313 



Japan's Inheritance 



view — a certain cheapness of life and the 
doctrine that suicide is the penalty of failure. 
The latter, of course, is a survival of the custom 
of harakiri practised in feudal times. On the 
eve of Tsushima, Admiral Togo gave his officers 
more than a hint of what was expected of them 
in event of defeat. Nogi's self-immolation on 
the occasion of the Meiji obsequies bears the 
same construction. The grizzled, great-hearted 
warrior felt that his own past sacrifices, his own 
example, had failed to influence the nation as he 
had hoped. Recognizing this, and the fact that 
the passing of his Imperial Master marked the 
end of the old order of things, he felt that he 
could but make the samurai's last atonement. 

One summer day I was travelling by rail from 
Tokyo to Yokohama when the train was brought 
to a standstill by an " accident " on the line. 
Perceiving that most of my Japanese fellow- 
passengers alighted from the carriages and 
hurried in the direction of the engine, I followed 
suit. To my horror I found that a suicide had 
been the cause of the delay, and the track and 
the engine-wheels were being hastily cleared of 
the mangled remains of what had been a human 
body. But more horrible still, to my mind, was 
the attitude of the crowd. Neither horror, nor 
disgust, nor pity could be traced upon a single 
face. If the general expression might be 
summed up in a phrase, it was one of amused 

314 





CALLED TO THE COLOURS : "BANZAI !" 



A GEISHA DANCE. 





TEMPLE OF HACHIMAN, THE JAPANESE 
MARS, AT KAMAKURA. 



FUNERAL OF COMMANDER HIROSE, WHO 
LED THE BLOCKING OPERATIONS AT 
PORT ARTHUR {1904). 



To face p. 3 14. 



The Political Fabric 

interest. "Only another case of shinju!^" 
laughed the beholders of this gruesome scene, 
and clattered back on their geta to resume their 
seats, while the torn fragments of humanity were 
trundled ojff on a barrow to the nearest police- 
station. 

Militarism of this stern and uncompromising 
character is the foundation of the Japanese 
polity. On this rough basis has been reared 
in the course of the Meiji Era a superstructure 
of Constitutionalism. Nominal at first, the efforts 
of the popular, as distinct from the ruling, class 
have been directed towards making it a reality. 
■Within certain limits they have succeeded. 

Feudalism and Japan parted company when 
the great Daimyos laid their possessions at 
Mutsuhito's feet. In that same moment the 
Mikado was transformed from a sort of high- 
priest — an object of veneration enshrined in an 
old-world palace — into a monarch, vested with 
all spiritual and temporal power. As an act of 
renunciation, this self-effacement of the terri- 
torial barons has received general praise. But 
the sacrifice was largely a matter of form. A 
sovereign cannot do without Ministers, and so 
the great offfces of State passed into the hands 
of the former Daimyos. These clan chieftains 
gave up their actual power over their respective 
districts, and received in its place a share in the 

^ Suicide. 



Japan's Inheritance 



control of the country, at large. Although, in 
theory, the Emperor— the title Mikado is offi- 
cially disapproved — was an absolute monarch, 
the form of government was in practice an 
oligarchy. 

In the course of centuries the feudal Daimyo 
and their samurai retainers had laid wide and 
deep the foundations of their class. It was their 
privilege to fight for, their responsibility to 
defend, the heaven -given land. In such exalted 
rights and duties the heimin, or Japanese plebs^ 
though outnumbering their superiors by fifteen 
to one, had neither part nor lot. Obviously, 
the first step towards national reorganization on 
modern lines was, by abolition of the privileges 
of the military caste, to establish the principle 
of equality of citizenship. As early in the Meiji 
Era as 1878 the wearing of swords — the distinc- 
tive mark of the samurai — was forbidden by 
Imperial decree, and, with the adoption of 
military service on European lines, the right of 
the peasant to bear arms in defence of his 
country was implicitly recognized. This social 
revolution was not effected without a struggle, 
the Satsuma clansmen, in particular, offering a 
fierce resistance. Thirty thousand valuable lives 
had to be sacrificed before the peasant could say, 
with the two -s worded warrior, " Civis Japonlcus 
sum'' But of the issue no doubt remained. 

The plebeian soldier had arrived. Later, as the 

316 



The Political Fabric 

world knows, he proved his mettle on the plains 
of Manchuria. 

" Disestablished " though the samurai were, 
their superior education and social status con- 
tinued to count in their favour. Military power 
taken from them, the civil came in its stead. 
The control of affairs fell, almost in the nature 
of things, into their hands. Japan's first Parlia- 
ment, like England's in the thirteenth century, 
consisted entirely of noblemen — knights of the 
shire — and their erstwhile retainers. A delibera- 
tive rather than a legislative assembly, it was a 
failure at that. But out of the fiasco came forth 
light. Count Itagaki, head of the great Tosa 
clan, was the first to perceive that in one way 
only could the country be saved from domina- 
tion by a military oligarchy — namely, by means 
of a popular elected Legislature. Seceding from 
the ruling clique, he gathered about him' a 
number of young men who had returned from 
travel in Europe, and set himself to the task of 
converting his countrymen to liberal views. Not 
long afterwards, and influenced by similar con- 
siderations, Count Okuma began to preach the 
new creed of popular control. Thus came into 
being two political parties, working independently 
along the same lines, with constitutional govern- 
ment for the common goal. Remarkable success 
crowned the campaign. Within a few months of 
its inauguration an Imperial decree announced 

317 



Japan's Inheritance 

that in ten years' time a national assembly 
would be convened. 

The keynote of the Japanese Constitution is 
the throne. " The Emperor combines in him- 
self the rights of sovereignty." He " exercises 
the legislative power with the consent of the 
Diet " (Arts. iv. and v.). Ministerial respon- 
sibility is not to the Diet but to the Emperor. 
The appointment of Ministers vests also in the 
Imperial will. Particular stress is laid by the 
late Prince Ito, in one of his expositions of the 
Constitution, upon the sovereign's right to select 
his Ministers from whatever party he pleased 
or from no party at all. Finally, the Diet sits 
for only three months in the year (Art. xlii). 
During the remaining nine, in the event of 
" urgent necessity to maintain public safety 
or avert public calamities," the Emperor may 
issue Imperial decrees " to take the place of 
law." 

This centralization of power, in theory, in the 
hands of the sovereign will be condemned by 
some as the weak point of the Constitution. By 
the framers of that instrument it was regarded 
as the strongest. Among the shifting sands of 
our environment, said they, there is, at any rate, 
one fixed and solid rock — the veneration of our 
people for their divinely descended head. But 
the makers of the New Japan failed to make 
sufficient allowance for the inevitable effect of 



The Political Fabric 

modern materialistic ideas and of ever-increasing 
intercourse with the West upon this spirit of 
reverential unquestioning loyalty, resting on the 
slender basis of the supernatural. Moreover, 
the pages of Japanese history afford numerous 
instances of a Mikado " sacred and inviolable " 
indeed, but politically impotent ; while the real 
direction of affairs rested with some military 
dictator or with some bureaucratic clique. There 
exists in Japan at the present time a small coterie 
of distinguished men, grown grey in the service 
of the State, who form a sort of supreme council, 
and in whose hands the real power lies. 
Sagacious, experienced, resolute, they have in 
practice, so far, been of genuine assistance to 
the State, and have played a definite part in 
the national development. It is difficult, indeed, 
to see how Japan, in her international swaddling- 
clothes, could have made shift without them. 
Nevertheless, unmentioned in the Constitution, 
they stand an irresponsible body between the 
Diet and the Cabinet — a factor impossible to 
reconcile with any theory of representative 
Government. Necessary as they undoubtedly 
were in the past, they have, in the view of their 
countrymen, survived their usefulness. " The 
law," said St. Paul, " was our schoolmaster, to 
bring us to Christ." Just such a purpose did 
the Genro serve in Japan's progress to consti- 
tutional freedom. But with a pupil grown to 

319 



Japan's Inheritance 



years of discretion, the need for an escort 
disappears . 

Under the Japanese Constitution the Diet is 
bi-cameral. It consists of a House of Reers 
and a House of Representatives. Neither of 
these has that direct and intimate connection 
with the Government of the day which such 
bodies are usually thought to have. The former, 
as might be expected, is in close touch with the 
conservative and bureaucratic elements, and 
enjoys a security of position not vouchsafed to 
the Lower House. The hereditary, nominative, 
and elective principles are all followed in its 
composition. Some 200 out of its 370 members 
represent the various orders of nobility ; there 
are 120 "men of erudition or distinguished 
service " nominated for life by the Emperor ; and 
there are 43 representatives of " the highest tax- 
payers," elected by themselves, one for each 
prefecture. Unlike the Lower Chamber, the 
House of Eeers cannot be dissolved, it can only 
be prorogued. So far there has been nO' occa- 
sion for it to come into conflict either with the 
Ministers or with the popular branch of the 
Legislature. 

Almost a million and a half of the Japanese 

enjoy the parliamentary franchise, and some 

80 per cent, avail themselves of the privilege. 

There are two qualifications — age of twenty-five 

years and the payment of 10 yen per annum 

320 



The Political Fabric 

in direct taxation. The rural districts return 
300 out of the 379 members. For electoral 
purposes they are divided into constituencies 
with a population of 130,000, corresponding as 
far as possible with the prefectures. The same 
figures are regarded as the unit for urban districts 
containing over 100,000 inhabitants, though an 
incorporated city with 30,000 inhabitants con- 
stitutes an independent electoral body. Cabinet 
Ministers in Japan are not elected, nor are they 
made responsible to the elected representatives 
of the people. On the other hand, if the House 
of Representatives adopts an obstructive attitude 
towards the proposals of the Ministry, it is liable 
to suffer dissolution by Imperial decree — a fate 
which has overtaken it seven times since the 
first Assembly in 1890. In most constitutionally 
governed countries Vox populi, vox Dei is the 
accepted rule. In Japan the voice of the 
Emperor, adopted for the moment by the 
Ministry in power, is — or has hitherto been — the 
voice of God. 

General elections in Japan, which take place 
every four years — assuming that the Diet escapes 
dissolution for that period — do not excite a great 
deal of popular interest. Despite elaborate 
regulations, a considerable amount of bribery 
and corruption persists. In the elections of 
1 9 1 2, votes were openly sold in some places — 
according to the Japanese Press — at 10 yen 

321 X 



Japan's Inheritance 



apiece ; and some sensation was caused by two 
ex-M.R.'s who had been convicted of corrupt 
practices in connection with the sugar scandals 
of 1 910, offering themselves for re-election. As 
a rule, however, the Japanese elector is more 
concerned in such matters as the price of rice 
or the cost of his daily tram-ride. The addition 
of a sen (a farthing) to the Tokyo street-railway 
rates a few years ago gave rise to serious riots, 
in which a number of electric -cars were literally 
sacrificed to mark the popular indignation. 
[Between the existence of such grievances and 
the election of parliamentary representatives the 
Japanese " man in the street " saw no connec- 
tion. There has been reason in his attitude so 
far ; but things have changed considerably of 
late years. The political instinct of the people 
seems at last to have been aroused, and this must 
mean the gradual assertion of the principle of 
popular control . 

'Bearing in mind these conditions, we shall be 
in a position to follow more closely the history 
of its final stage — the evolution of party govern- 
ment. The followers of Itagaki had taken unto 
themselves the name of Jiyu-to, or Liberals, while 
those of Okuma styled themselves Shtnipo-to, 
i.e., Progressists. In 1898, that is to say just 
twenty years after the Japanese Rousseau, as 
he has been called, had inaugurated the process 

of political agitation, these two bodies, differing 

322 



The Political Fabric 

more in name than nature^ united to form a 
*' Constitutional Rarty " (K^nsel-to) . The amal- 
gamation impressed both the official and non- 
official world. It was felt that the objection 
hitherto advanced against the formation of a 
Ministry on party lines — namely, that no single 
political association possessed sufficient talent to 
conduct the affairs of the country — could no 
longer be maintained. Accordingly, Counts 
Itagaki and Okuma were invited to form Japan's 
first Earty Cabinet. They accepted the Imperial 
mandate : it was indeed the fulfilment of the aim 
for which they had laboured. Alas for human 
weakness ! The coalition did not outlive the 
test of six months of office. Jealousies arose 
between the leading men, and the party broke up 
into the two sections which had composed it. The 
moral of the failure was evident. Unless one 
party or another succeeded in attaching to itself 
the highest personages in the land — the " clan 
statesmen," or, as they came to be known in later 
days, the " elder statesmen " — there was little 
hope of its making headway with the task of 
government. 

It was in this direction that the next move took 
place. Throwing principles to the winds, the 
Liberals laid themselves at the feet of Ito, who 
by this time was facile princeps in the official 
world. Unconditional surrender was what the 
Marquis demanded, and he coupled with it the 

323 



Japan's Inheritance 

significant proviso that the new organization was 
to be known not as " party " but as an " associa- 
tion." Such was the genesis of the Seiyukal 
("Friends of the Constitution"), which ever 
since has been the most powerful section of the 
Japanese Diet. It has travelled far since the 
day of its inception. Intended by Ito as a safe- 
guard against the party system, it has become 
the champion and defender of that system. Ten 
years ago, on the eve of a new session, its dis- 
tinguished chief solemnly admonished the 
association against any sort of obstructive 
tactics. He laid down the doctrine that, once 
Ministers had been appointed to office, it was 
the duty of politicians, as loyal subjects of the 
Emperor, to abstain from interfering with them. 
Now this association, frankly a party, does not 
hesitate to " hold up " the Government of Japan 
by way of asserting the principle that at least 
the majority of the Cabinet should belong to 
the party which can command a majority in the 
Diet. 

In 1903 Ito, called to the Presidency of the 
Privy Council, resigned the leadership of the 
Seiyukal to his second-in-command, the Marquis 
Saionji, who, during the stormy times of the 
Satsuma rebellion, had learned democracy in 
France. Since that date the " Friends of the 
Constitution," comprising three-fifths of the 
membership of the House of Representatives, 

324 



The Political Fabric 

have acted in the main as a ministerial party. 
They have supported the Government of the day 
— not always, however, wholeheartedly. The 
Progressists, numbering a fourth of the 'House, 
together with two minor parties, constituted a 
somewhat ineffective opposition. Throughout the 
critical period of the Russian War, Marquis (now 
Prince) Katsura, who held the reins of govern- 
ment, deemed it advisable to make a working 
arrangement with the Seiyukai. Subsequently 
that statesman defined his attitude as one of 
" indiscriminate friendship " for all parties. 
When, on the death of Mutsuhito, Katsura 
took up the post of Grand Chamberlain in the 
Imperial Household — the better, from that bad 
eminence (so his enemies averred), to turn to his 
own advantage, as the power behind the throne, 
the course of future events — th€ Marquis Saionji 
succeeded him as Premier. It was an admirable 
choice, for that nobleman, as President of the 
Seiyukai, was assured of a majority in the Diet. 
He could therefore, as no Prime Minister in 
Japan had really done, administer the affairs of 
the nation constitutionally in the truest sense. 

From the constitutional point of view, the era 
of Taisho had made a most auspicious start. 
But it was not to the liking of the " ruling 
caste." Militarists, allied with bureaucrats, had 
hitherto succeeded in retaining in their hands all 
real power. In the eyes of both the Party 

325 



Japan's Inheritance 

Cabinet was a thing abhorred. It involved re- 
cognition of the principle of ministerial respon- 
sibility — not to the Emperor, nor to the Genro, 
nor to officialdom, but to the Diet ; and, with 
the acceptance of that theory, the power would 
pass from their hands into those of the people. 
Such an issue, compromising all that bureau- 
cracy holds most dear, was worth fighting. So, 
with a view to enforcing the resignation of the 
Saionji Ministry and the recall of Erince Katsura, 
General Uyehara, the Minister for War, acting 
for the military clique, precipitated a crisis by 
demanding two additional divisions for the 
defence of the Korean frontier. Faced by this 
crisis, the Diet rose to the height of its great 
opportunity. A " Constitution Protection 
Society " was formed, not from' one party, 
nor from two, but from all ; and the Diet pre- 
sented a solid front to the enemy. When Erince 
Katsura advanced to the attack with his 
announcement of forming " a new party '■ — 
armed, it is said, with a million yen for the 
purpose — he found a House profoundly hostile 
and strangely incorruptible. Unexpected 
" friends of the Constitution " arose likewise 
in the country. The campaign of mass -meetings 
carried on in all the large centres under the flag 
of the allied parties produced remarkable 
results. Riots in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kobe left 

no doubt as to the depth and character of the 

326 



The Political Fabric 

popular feeling. In the face of such' unforeseen 
and portentous developments, only one course 
remained open to the " privileged caste." Even 
the Japanese bureaucrat has not parted with the 
saving grace of common sense. Katsura, and 
with him the Genro, and with them officialdom' 
at large, bowed to the storm'. In the Ministry 
which succeeded, members of the Seiyakai held 
a majority of the portfolios. 

Though it is early yet to appreciate the effects 
of the most momentous of Japan's political crises, 
three at least can scarcely be overlooked. For the 
first time in Japanese history, in a pitched battle 
with the ruling class, a popularly elected assembly 
has won. The establishment of the principle of 
ministerial responsibility to the Legislature would 
seem to follow as a matter of course. In the 
second place, the political instinct of the Japanese 
people has been aroused. This mtist tend to 
ensure steady progress towards representative 
government. Finally, there can be little doubt 
that, as the result of certain tendencies of 
Japanese statecraft — among which must be in- 
cluded the abuse of the Imperial prerogative in 
the matter of decrees and of prorogation and 
dissolution of the Diet — the prestige of the 
Imperial 'House has suffered. In what way and 
to what extent these things will affect the future 
of the Japanese race it is not possible to foresee. 
There is no reason, however, to take a pessi- 

327 



Japan's Inheritance 



mistic view. A quarter of a century ago the 
Japanese people received a Constitution. Having 
at length made it their own, they may be trusted, 
in the future, to use it for the best. 



328 



CHAPTER XVIII 

JAPAN AS A COLONIAL POWER 

The fruits of war — A mixed population — The "smoking 
islands " — The far south — The subjugation of Formosa 
— State Socialism to some purpose — The acquisition of 
Korea — A gradual process, despite two wars — " Direct 
colonization" — Official encouragement — Japan's handling 
of colonial problems — Where the Japanese adminis- 
trator fails 

Japan's over-sea possessions are the fruits of 
her successful wars. In the art of territorial 
expansion, as in most other things, she has 
proved an apt pupil of the West. In 1863 and 
1864 two of her ports sufTered bombardment 
at the hands of European Powers for high- 
handed action on the part of the southern 
Daimyos. In 1874 a punitive expedition left 
those very ports to take vengeance on the 
barbarians of Formosa. It v/as the first war- 
like excursion from Japanese shores since the 
days of the Taiko Hideyoshi, who subjugated 
Chosen at the cost of a quarter of a million 
lives. Less expensive but quite as effective in 

329 



Japan's Inheritance 



its way was this Eormosan expedition of 1874. 
The savages of Taiwan had butchered, and 
possibly eaten, some shipwrecked Japanese 
mariners. Thereafter they learned that the 
subjects of the Mikado were to be treated with 
respect. Which was, of course, precisely the 
kind of lesson that De Kuyper and his brother 
Admirals had sought to enforce upon the 
Tokugawas and their Dainty os. 

In the following year, by way of marking 
the end of the era of " splendid isolation," two 
additions were made to the Japanese colonial 
list. A certain Dmmyo of the name of Ogasa- 
wara had discovered, in the sixteenth century, 
a group of coral-reefed islands, 500 miles south 
of Tokyo Bay, and named them Ma-nin — i.e., 
Uninhabited. In the course of time the popu- 
lation grew to seventy. History does not relate 
who first arrived, nor how and whence ; but 
when the Japanese appeared on the scene, to 
make good their claim of prior discovery, they 
found a motley population of Hawaiians with 
Kanaka wives, Malays, a few retired pirates of 
Chinese extraction, shipwrecked mariners of half 
a dozen European nations, and various half- 
breeds. As conclusive confirmation of the claim 
of English to be the " universal language," it 
deserves to be placed on record that the speech 
of these islanders was Anglo-Saxon, of a sort. 
Now, however, the official tongue is Japanese, 

330 



Japan as a Colonial Power 

for the Bonin Islands are duly registered in the 
Tokyo Home Office as Ogasawara-Ken, the re- 
motest of the sixty-five prefectures which in 1870 
took the place of the old-fashioned but still 
popular Kuni (provinces). 

It was a bad bargain by which, in the same 
year, Japan gave up her claim to Saghalien in 
exchange for the barren, fog-bound Kuriles. 
The former has valuable forests, oil-fields, 
and fisheries ; the latter has — volcanoes . And 
volcanoes too young, for the most part, to be 
overgrown ! In those days, alas ! the word of 
Japan passed for little, while that of Russia was 
law ; though tnore recently, in faith, through 
the retroceded southern half of Karafuto, Japan 
has got back some of her own. 

It was by way of these " Thousand Islands " 
(as the Japanese name Chishima signifies) that 
the Ainus, the earliest inhabitants of Japan, 
passed thither from the mainland. After them 
came the Cossacks, on the hunt for fur-bearing 
animals, and left few to tell the tale. Albeit 
there are still some bears ; the streams swarm' 
with salmon, the shores are beset with miniature 
sargassos. And there is sulphur — in Kunashiri, 
the nearest to Yezo, a lake of it — which goes to 
make Japanese matches. Which might have 
been expected. So many of the Kuriles are 
active cones rising sheer out of the sea that 
the Russians called them the " smoking islands." 

331 



Japan's Inheritance 



The next assertion of Japan's colonizing 
energy was in the far south. For four hundred 
years the people of the Lu-chu (Ryu-kyu) 
Islands had laboured under the disadvantage of 
owning allegiance — and paying tribute — to two 
Powers at the same time. China's claim would 
seem to have been the superior. It was first 
advanced by one of the Ming Emperors, while 
the Satsuma Daimyd's conquest of the archi- 
pelago in the seventeenth century was only 
partial. In 1879 the Japanese resolved to put 
an end to this equivocal state of affairs. The 
King of the Luchuans was seized and brought 
captive to Tokyo, while, with the minimum of 
delay, the name of Okinawa (the principal 
island) was added to the prefectural list. 

By all these little annexations, then, there 
hangs a tale. But they implied no material in- 
crease in the wealth or influence of Japan. Nor 
did they involve any expenditure of life or 
treasure. With the later acquisitions it is another 
story. For them the island-people had to fight 
— with, however, the consolation that they were 
worth fighting for. 

In Formosa the Western world, which has 
been wont to arrogate to itself a monopoly of 
colonizing capacity, may study the results of 
Japan's first experiment in that direction. The 
island — equal in size to Kyushu, or about half 
as large as Scotland — was the chief prize of the 

332 



Japan as a Colonial Power 

war with China. Though Japan got it in 1895, 
she had to make good her possession. The 
western slope of the island terminates in an 
alluvial plain, which was peopled by Chinese and 
other traders, peaceably disposed, but with little 
love for their new masters . -With the aid, indeed, 
of the Chinese garrison, an attempt was made 
to set up a republic; but, on the whole, the 
civilized portion of the population gave little 
trouble. When it came to asserting their 
authority and establishing order in the interior 
the Japanese found their work cut out for them. 
The whole centre of the island is occupied by 
a mountain range, exceeding in elevation any 
peak in Japan proper. The upper slopes and 
spurs of this range, falling rapidly from a height 
of 12,000 to 13,000 feet, give rise to a rugged 
and densely wooded country, and terminate, on 
the east coast, in a magnificent array of cliffs, 
5,000 to 6,000 feet high. The almost impene- 
trable forests of the interior — in the north of 
the island especially — are peopled by a race of 
warlike savages of Malay descent, armed with 
poisoned arrows and addicted to the inconvenient 
pursuit of head-hunting. With these aboriginal 
Formosans the Japanese have waged ceaseless 
warfare up to the present day. The modus 
operandi was that of slowly advancing expedi- 
tions, fully equipped in the ordinary sense, and 
carrying an ample supply of barbed-wire. When 

333 



Japan's Inheritance 

a village had been taken or a forest clearing 
made, the area was surrounded with an elaborate 
system of wire entanglements. The nearest 
approach to an engagement was in 1910, when 
the Japanese troops, after almost superhuman 
efforts, succeeded in occupying some heights 



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FORMOSA. 

Contours 6,000 ft. and 10,000 ft. S. 
Setsuzan (Mt. Sylvia) ; N, Niitaka- 
yama (Mt. Morrison). Tm, Tamsui ; 
Th, Tailioku ; K, Keelung ; Tn, 
Tainan; Tic, Takow. 



which commanded a tableland where many of 
the aborigines dwelt. The capture of a head- 
hunter flagrante delicto was a rare event, but 
one by one the chiefs have made submission, 
till the area actually untraversed or unoccupied 
is comparatively small. Dutch, Spaniards, 

334 



Japan as a Colonial Power 

English in turn have " occupied " the Beau- 
tiful Island ; for a score of years it even had 
a dynasty of its own, founded by one Koku- 
Singa, the son of a Chinese pirate by a 
Japanese mother-; and for two hundred years 
it has been a Chinese province. But never 
has it known a fraction of the security it now 
enjoys. 

'Hard things have been said as to the severity 
of the Japanese methods of dealing with the 
Formosan aborigines. One might as well accuse 
the British Army of barbarity when, on the 
North-West Frontier, a Pathan who had 
" knifed " some sleeping " Tommy " in the 
night was blown next morning from a cannon's 
mouth. It would be quite impossible to kill 
Formosan head-hunters with kindness. Nor were 
the Japanese so foolish as to try. In the heavy, 
thankless, and long-drawn task of reducing these 
savages to submission the Japanese have rather 
shown that " infinite capacity for taking pains " 
which amounts to genius, and their record has 
not been marred by inhumanity. 

They have their reward. Under the Chinese 
regime the revenue of the island stood at half 
a million sterling. It is now over four millions. 
Within the past ten years the total value of the 
import and export trade, which now stands at 
about £11,000,000 annually, has increased by 
250 per cent. Formosa, with Japan proper, sup- 

335 



Japan's Inheritance 

plies the bulk of the 1 1,000,000 lb. of camphor 
annually consumed throughout the world. To 
furnish the most profitable yield a tree has to 
be from sixty to a hundred years old, so that, 
with the felling of over ten thousand trees a 
year, the industry was at one time threatened 
with extinction. In 1899, however, camphor was 
proclaimed a Government monopoly. Reckless 
cutting was stopped and extensive afforestation 
taken in hand. Other promising industries, such 
as sugar, tea {Oolong), oil, and cotton, were also 
brought under State control. Over 1,000 miles 
of good roads have been constructed, a rail- 
way has been built from' Tamsui and Taihoku, 
the capital, in the north to Tainan and Takow, 
in the south. Important irrigation and harbour 
works, estimated to cost 35,000,000 yen, are in 
progress in various parts of the island. The 
Japanese, in short, have spared neither money 
nor pains in the development of their colony. 
If exception may be taken to their system on the 
ground that it is a huge piece of State Socialism, 
costly in the long run because subversive of 
private enterprise, the obvious answer is that in 
no other way could such results have been 
obtained within a reasonable time. Given the 
desirability of speedy development, it was the 
only system possible. At least the Japanese can 
point to the fait accompli — the face of this once 
unhappy island transformed by the work of their 

336 



Japan as a Colonial Power 

hands — and claim that the end has justified 
the means. 

In Korea, from the first, Japan has had to 
face problems of a different order. She has not 
had to deal with barbarous or semi-barbarous 
tribes, but with a people whose civilization is 
as old as, if not older than, her own. While 
securing her own interests, she has had to refrain 
from alienating the goodwill of that people ; and 
all this, in the teeth of the bitter hostility of 
at least two powerful nations and under the eye 
of a none too friendly world. Politically and 
nominally, her work is done. In reality, it is 
but beginning. In 1894 Japan fought China for 
Korea. Ten years later she fought Russia with 
the same object. Before her conquest of the 
Land of the Morning Calm is complete she will 
have to fight — herself. 

The process by which Japan has obtained 
possession of the much-coveted Korean Penin- 
sula affords an instructive study in the art 
of territorial expansion. It is not possible here 
to enter into a discussion of Japanese relations 
with Korea in modern times, but a brief review, 
chronologically arranged, will be a sufficient 
guide. 

1876 (February 26) A Japanese Mission, escorted by several 
war ships, makes a treaty with Korea, recognizing 
the latter as a sovereign State, and ignoring the 
ancient Chinese claim of suzerainty. 

337 Y 



Japan's Inheritance 



1882-4 Various Korean ports were opened to foreign trade. 

1882 Anti- Japanese riots at Seoul : Japanese Legation burnt 
to the ground. 

1885 Convention between China and Japan giving either 
Power the right to station troops, with due notice, 
in Korea. (This privilege was claimed by Japan in 
consequence of the attack on her Legation.) 

1 89 1 Russia commences the construction of the Trans- 
Siberian railway. 

1894 Rebellion in South Korea. Both Powers sent troops — 

China in response to a Korean appeal ; but China 
refused Japan's invitation to co-operate. Japan 
thereupon declared war, on the ground of Chinese 
interference with her interests in Korea. 

1895 (April 17) Peace of Shimonoseki, recognizing "the 

absolute independence of Korea." 

1895 (April 22) Russia, France, and Germany advise the 

retrocession of Liaotung on the ground that "the 
Japanese occupation of that territory endangered 
the existence of the Chinese capital and of Korean 
independence." 

1896 Russo-Japanese Convention with regard to Korea, 

according equal rights to both Powers in the 
matter of protective troops and advice to the Korean 
Government. 
1898 Germany "■ leases " Kiaochou, Russia the Liaotung 
Peninsula, and Great Britain Wei-hai-wei. 

1902 Anglo-Japanese AUiance, recognizing "the independence 

of China and Korea," and the special interests of 
Japan in Korea. 

1903 (June) Japan opens negotiations with Russia for the 

settlement of the Korean and Manchurian questions. 

1903 (October) Russia returns an unsatisfactory reply, 

strengthening her armaments meanwhile. 

1904 (February 9) Japan, having broken off negotiations, 

attacks the Russian fleet in Port Arthur. 
338 



Japan as a Colonial Power 

1905 (August) Treaty of Portsmouth between Russia 
and Japan, by which Russia acknowledged the 
" paramount poHtical, mihtary, and economic 
interests " of Japan in Korea, and undertook not 
to interfere with any Japanese measures of " guid- 
ance, protection, and control." A few weeks 
previously the Anglo-Japanese Alliance . had been 
renewed on an extended basis. 

1905 (November) The Ito Mission to Korea leads to a Con- 
vention giving Japan complete control and direction 
of Korean affairs, and providing for the appoint- 
ment of a Resident-General. 

1907 (July) Intrigues against Japan, culminating in the dis- 
patch of Korean delegates, under the Imperial seal, 
to the Hague Conference. The Korean Emperor 
voluntarily abdicates the throne. Virtual protec- 
torate established by Japan. 

1909 (October 26) Assassination of Prince Ito at Harbin by 

the Korean An. 

19 10 (August 2) Annexation of Korea. 

More eloquent than words, this record of 
events as they occurred shows how great a 
danger to its neighbours and to the world 
the weak, ill-ordered State can be. Japan's 
prescience, her resolution, her military capacity 
have removed that danger for ever. The former 
Hermit Kingdom is now an integral part of the 
Japanese Empire in thirteen prefectures, under 
a military, or naval, ofhcer, who, as Governor - 
General, presides over five Administrative De- 
partments — Internal Affairs, Finance, Agricul- 
ture, Commerce and Industry, and Justice. This 

339 



Japan's Inheritance 

inclusion of an additional 85,000 square miles 
brings the area of the Japanese Empire above 
that of Germany, and its population to well over 
sixty million souls. 

Every effort is made by the Japanese authori- 
ties to encourage settlers to go to Korea, or 
Chosen, as it was officially re-named in 1910. 
Land up to two acres is given to each worthy 
immigrant, to be paid for by moderate in,stal- 
ments. As a result the number of Japanese in 
Korea has increased from 50,000 before the 
war to a quarter of a million, and land to 
the value of thirteen million sterling is actually 
owned by Japanese small -holders. Most of 
this " direct colonization " is the work of the 
Oriental Development Company, a joint Korean- 
Japanese undertaking, established under Govern- 
ment auspices in 1908 with an annual subsidy, 
for the first eight years, of 300,000 yen. Apart 
from agriculture, which this ^M«s/-official com- 
pany makes its special concern, mining, forestry, 
and communications receive most attention from 
the authorities. The successful results obtained 
by the Oriental Consolidated Mining Company 
— an American concern, founded in 1897 to 
develop the Woonsan concession in the Pyong- 
yang district, where there is a yearly output of 
gold to the value of 2| to 3 million yen — led, 
in 1 910, to a Japanese -American venture on 
similar lines to work quartz and placer-gold at 

340 



Japan as a Colonial Power 

Chiksan, 50 miles south of Seoul. -Here 2,500 
Koreans find regular and, for them, remunerative 
employment on a tribute system. Like the 
Chinese, the Koreans are ruthless destroyers 
of tree -life, for purposes of fuel ; and strong 
measures have been taken under the new regime 
to prevent deforestation and develop the timber 
industry. There has been no occasion for the 
Tokyo officials to nurse the fisheries. Long 
before the Protectorate, Japanese fishermen from 
Kyushu and Western Japan discovered the poten- 
tialities of the Korean fishing-grounds, which 
they virtually annexed. Over a thousand 
Japanese fishing hamlets have sprung up all 
along the Korean coast . The inhabitants of these 
unauthorized colonies enjoy comparative afflu- 
ence, for they make four or five times as much 
out of their annual catch as they could off their 
native shores. 

Japan feels that her international standing 
depends in large measure upon success or failure 
in Korea. Her work in Formosa was, by com- 
parison, child's play. That being the case, it is 
unfortunate, from her point of view, that many 
unscrupulous and worthless persons — speculators 
and adventurers clearly actuated by greed — were 
permitted in early days to find their way into the 
Peninsula. Nor did Japan, at the outset, send 
of her best to aid in the work of government. 
These errors furnished ready material to a coterie 

341 



Japan's Inheritance 



of foreign intriguers, and enthusiastic but short- 
sighted friends of Korea, ■ who, with the aid of 
secret societies and a Uberationist Press, set 
themselves (often with the best intentions) to 
the impossible task of rolling uphill the heavy 
stone of Korean independence. That evils have 
arisen in connection with the Japanese adminis- 
tration set up in 1907 cannot be gainsaid. From 
such an affair as the recent Conspiracy Trial, 
whereby a mountain was made out of a molehill, 
it is evident that the minor officials, and 
especially the too ubiquitous police, would be 
all the better for a little more supervision from 
headquarters. But these are incidental and 
remediable evils, which will soon cease to dis- 
figure the work of Japan's hands. No one will 
deny that the state of Korea, after three years 
of unrestricted Japanese control, shows a material 
improvement which those familiar with pre-exist- 
ing conditions could scarcely have considered 
possible. 

Reviewing in a general way Japan's colonial 
problems and her handling of them, it may be 
remarked that the Japanese have the idea of 
ruling for the benefit of the ruled, without the 
faculty of convincing them of the fact. Perhaps 
this is because, while the ruled have undoubtedly 
benefited, the rulers have, at the same time, too 
much of an eye for their own profit. The con- 
duct of a colony on the lines of a State farm, 

342 



Japan as a Colonial Power 

even when no other method offers, must tend to 
create this impression — among the farm-hands, 
at any rate, if not in the world outside. The 
sooner, therefore, the official strings are removed 
the better for the tone and spirit of the colony. 
But the hour for that relaxation is for the rulers 
to decide. If there is another defect that cannot 
escape the impartial observer's notice, it is that 
the moral factor, the personal sympathetic influ- 
ence which goes so far to make the Englishman 
the hesCiM ide^ of a civil servant, is lacking in 
the Japanese administrator. There is a certain 
brusqueness and, again, a calculating cold- 
bloodedness — often accompanied by an unneces- 
sary parade of force — which suggests that the 
Japanese official is not quite sure of himself. It 
was evident, for example, that the annexation 
of Korea had been decided upon, and prepara- 
tions made to the smallest detail, long before 
the event took place. On the very day of the 
promulgation the name of every station on 
the Korean railway system was changed — the 
Japanese name taking the place of the Korean ; 
and bewildered Korean passengers might have 
been seen gazing " in fixt amaze " at time- 
tables in Japanese characters and schedules of 
fares in Japanese money, which were to them 
like so much Greek. The good-natured official, 
always on hand to explain, was conspicuous by 
his absence. This sort of thing is admirable 

343 



Japan's Inheritance 

as preliminary to a bloody campaign, when all 
must be in place " to the last button on the last 
gaiter." But the Japanese were not about to 
war. They were taking over the government of 
a country for that country's good. 



344 



CHAPTER XIX 
WHERE EAST MEETS WEST 

The turning of the tide — East and West must meet — Imprints 
of the West — First results — Commercial integrity — The 
presentation of things Japanese — Is coalescence possible ? 
— Mixed marriages and race-prejudice — The Japanese 
resents indignity — La morgue anglaise — The Japanese 
abroad — An unwelcome guest — The worst offenders — 
England's lost opportunity — The call of the blood — 
The Yellow Peril 

If the nineteenth century was the opportunity of 
the West, the twentieth is for the East. Con- 
centrated in its eastern and south-eastern fringe, 
Asia holds well over half the inhabitants of the 
globe ; and this vast population is astir. Within 
the past decade, and beginning with the Farthest 
East, a revitalizing movement has spread along 
the oceanic borders of the great continent — from 
Japan through China and India to Persia, and, 
beyond, to the basin of the Nile. It may be 
called " unrest " in one place, the " sense of 
nationalism " in another ; it may be dubbed 
" sedition " here, " ambition " there, but the spirit 

345 



Japan's Inheritance 

and driving-power are the same. The people 
of the East are awakening to a new consciousness 
of hfe ; the tide of civihzation which for two, 
thousand years has rolled westward now " turns 
again home." 

In the opinion of many people, differences of 
race, creed, and colour have reared between East 
and West an insuperable barrier. An English 
poet tersely, if somewhat dogmatically, has given 
currency to the same idea : — 

"O East is East, and West is West, 
And never the twain shall meet." 

But to believe this is to ignore " the annihila- 
tion of distance " and the rapid shrinking of the 
world. The meeting of East and West is inevit- 
able. All that remains to be considered is the 
manner of their meeting, and the result of it. The 
vista of circumstance here opened to the seeing 
eye is long indeed. 

Hitherto in the intercourse between these two 
great divisions of humanity, the Oriental has 
been "under dog." Only in Japan, so far, have 
East and West met on equal terms. Not that it 
was so in the beginning. The knocking of the 
West at the gates of the self-secluded Island 
Power was rough and rude. Perry's treaty of 
" peace and amity " would never have received 
the Mikado's signature except for the threat of 
force. The future ally of Japan o;btruded her- 

346 



Where East meets West 

self upon the attention of the Shogunate with 
shot and shell. Even up to the last year of the 
nineteenth century foreign traders and representa- 
tives in Japan remained outside the jurisdiction 
of the country where they lived — an anomalous 
situation only to be found, at the present day, in 
the treaty-ports of China, and duly resented by 
the native inhabitajnts there, as it was by the 
Japanese. But with the opening of the twentieth 
century a new era dawtied upon the East. Quick 
to perceive that the only hope of saving herself 
from absorption by the European Powers lay in 
the whole-hearted adoption of Western civiliza- 
tion, Japan set herself with extraordinary persist- 
ence and ability to qualify for recognition as a 
sovereign State. She succeeded, and now stands 
the type (if the paradox be permitted) of the 
Westernized Oriental nation. In Japan, there- 
fore, to greater advantage than elsewhere, may 
be studied the results — soi far as they go— of that 
meeting of East and West which poets and pub- 
licists have declared impossible. 

As representative of modern, commercial 
Japan in its relations with the outside world — as 
imprints of the West upon the East — the former 
treaty-ports may be considered typical. These 
settlements, with their brick-built warehouses, 
offices, and shops on the flat, their cosy bunga-^ 
lows and villas on the overlooking ridge, might 
pass for small provincial towns in the West, but 

347 



Japan's Inheritance 

for the vision of little Japanese policemen of great 
dignity standing at the corners, or the rotund 
Chinese compradore complacently filling a riksha 
drawn by a perspiring kurumaya half his size. 
A few hundred yards off, and on all sides round, 
lies the native or Japanese town — non-existent 
fifty years ago, but now rapidly extending inland 
and along the coast as means of comtaunication, 
in the shape of electric tramways, are improved. 
In narrow streets, lined with diminutive wood- 
and-paper houses mainly of one story, the 
European taking his walks abroad may experi- 
ence the pleasurable sensation of hearing himself 
called ijln-baka (foreign fool) by small, naked 
children with babies on their backs, or may even 
behold schoolboys in tunic and trousers complete 
—with a weird imitation of the mortar-board 
thrown in — forsaking their home-made jiajltsa 
for the " A-mer-i-caine shinjo " (" American 
present " — a blow with the fist), a term which 
owes its origin to the brawls of sailors from 
foreign, and especially American, warships — only 
too frequent in former times. A decade or so 
ago, however, the foreign settlements, as such, 
ceased to exist. They were officially renamed — 
everything of any consequence is done " offici- 
ally " in Japan — and Consular Courts have given 
place to Japanese tribunals, with a cumbrous and 
dilatory procedure which gives the foreign resi- 
dent at least one genuine cause of complaint. 

348 



Where East meets West 

What are the characteristics, mental and 
moral, which the first contact of the Japanese 
with the West has brought to the surface? Ah, 
there's the rub ! Probably no nation on earth 
has been so much discussed, no nation so little 
understood. The globe-trotter sees them at 
play ; he is frankly delighted, and says so — in a 
book of many pages. The foreign trader sees 
them at work ; he is offended, and proceeds to 
relieve his feelings in the columns of the papers, 
published in English, which flourish — like the 
green bay-tree — in the former treaty-ports. 
Now, there is no species of the animal man- 
whatever his colour — the Japanese love more than 
the globe-trotter. The American variety is 
especially esteemed. In the mind of high and 
low alike he is associated with illimitable wealth. 
He visits their beauty-spots, makes their hotels 
pay, falls an easy victim to the curio -dealer, and 
is a perfect godsend to the licensed guide. Not 
satisfied with these good works, he returns to his 
native land and lauds Japan, and all that therein 
is, to the very skies. Yes, the Japanese adore 
the globe-trotter. But they hate the foreign 
middleman, and having learned from him by 
diligent study the secrets of the commercial 
world, they have no further use for him. So he is 
being squeezed out by degrees, the tariff and the 
competition of the Japanese merchant affording 
ready and efficient means for the end in view. 

349 



Japan's Inheritance 

One of the first effects pf the opening of certain 
ports to foreign trade was a flocking thereto of 
the least desirable elements of the native 
population. The time-honoured prejudice against 
trade caused the higher classes to hold aloof. In 
this single circumstance we have the explana- 
tion of most of the disagreeable experiences re- 
corded by the earlier foreign arrivals — the 
charges of greed, defective commercial integrity, 
and what not. And the results of it survive, iri 
a measure, to the present day, though even 
Japanese merchants as a class have long since 
recognized that honesty is the best policy, and 
act accordingly. Nevertheless, the foreign com- 
munity, not without sin itself, is in no position to 
cast stones. Fortunes were amassed in the old 
days by foreign merchants in ways that will not 
bear examination, but now lie naked to the know- 
ledge of their Japanese victims. Since the aboli- 
tion of extra-territoriality it has fallen to the lot 
of the Japanese authorities to arrest and punish 
foreigners for fraudulent transactions. A gross 
case of barratry in which some members of one of 
the largest foreign firms were concerned occurred 
some years ago. An ancient sailing-vessel with 
an over-insured cargo of rice was deliberately, 
if clumsily, sent to the bottom off the coast of the 
Kii Channel, the actual perpetrators of the crime 
being subsequently tried and sentenced to life- 
imprisonment. The moral of the affair was not, 

350 



Where East meets West 

of course, lost on the Japanese, who for years 
past had been held up to obloquy by foreign 
publicists for lack of commercial probity. 

The Japanese as a nation are somewhat sensi- 
tive to criticism. No doubt the consciousness 
that their adoption of -Western ways and customs 
leaves much to be desired does not diminish 
this susceptibility ; but, be that as it may, the ill- 
natured aspersions on things Japanese with which 
the local foreign Press of anti -Japanese com- 
plexion delights to regale its clientele touches 
them on the raw. It would surprise nobody if, 
some day, one of these precious issues became 
the subject of a disagreeable " incident." In 
these circumstances the due presentation to the 
world of the Japanese, as opposed to the local 
foreign, view on all matters of international con- 
cern has for some years past assumed great im- 
portance in official eyes. A point has been made 
of winning over to the Japanese side the most 
important foreign correspondents and exponents 
of opinion. One of their greatest hauls, in this 
respect, was the late correspondent of the London 
Times ; another was the representative of the 
American Associated Press. Not content with 
the unwearying defence of Japanese policy given 
to the world by the former writer (who was also 
the editor of the principal local foreign paper), 
the Tokyo authorities founded, some dozen years 
ago, another semi-official organ, published in 

351 



Japan's Inheritance 



English and edited by Japanese. With the same 
object, newspapers pledged to uphold Japanese 
interests have been established in Seoul, Peking, 
New York, and San Francisco. No one will 
deny that, in so doing, the Japanese are wise in 
their generation. They might with reason con- 
tend that their Press Bureau, with its compre- 
hensive and widespread activities, is necessitated 
by the anti-Japonicism of 'the local foreign 
Press. 

Nations differing in colour and civilization 
have met before, in various parts of the world, 
without disaster to either. Immigrants have been 
absorbed by the aboriginal inhabitants of an in- 
sular territory or of a continent, and vice versa. 
In other instances the aborigines, preserving their 
racial characteristics to the last, though out- 
numbered by the new-comers, have failed to 
coalesce, and have suffered extinction. Is 
coalescence by naturalization and intermarriage 
possible, or practicable, between the nations of 
the East and those of the West? If not, their 
present rivalry, economic in its origin, cannot 
but be intensified by racial ill-will. 

Since the opening of the country, some twenty 
thousand Europeans and Americans have resided 
in Japan, for the most part in the former treaty- 
ports. The cases in which papers of naturaliza- 
tion have been taken out may almost be 
numbered on the fingers of one hand. In pre- 

352 



Where East meets West 

revision days, when white women were very few 
and far between, it was not an uncommon thing 
for the foreign resident to take unto himself 
a Japanese wife, who (by way of putting the 
best face upon the business) was always " a 
samuraVs daughter." Marriage with a Japanese 
woman is now exceedingly rare. In the eyes of 
the foreign community such a union constitutes 
a social blunder of the first order. Marriages 
between Japanese men and European women are 
even more rare, and, for reasons not far to seek, 
almost invariably end disastrously. 

Irregular unions are as common now as in the 
early days. To be the mistress of a foreigner — 
if only for a brief three years — is the ambition of 
many a lower-class Japanese girl, to whom it 
spells a life of luxury. While affording an inex- 
haustible theme for the Anglo -Japanese novelist, 
these alliances lead in real life to situations the 
reverse of romantic. The half-caste offspring 
of unions contracted many years ago have a way 
of obtruding themselves upon the present-day 
family of some highly respectable leader of the 
community, to the embarrassment of all con- 
cerned. They are also a source of worry to the 
foreign Consuls, when questions of legitimisation 
or adoption arise — though such cases represent 
only the fortunate minority. These Eurasian 
children take after the mother rather than the 
European father, with black hair and eyes and 

353 z 



Japan's Inheritance 



dark complexions. Though physically superior 
as a rule to the purely native, they seem fated to 
be despised both by foreigners and Japanese — 
the latter of whom refer to them as Aino-ka 
(barbarians). This is probably due to the belief, 
which has no foundation in fact, that they inherit 
the vices of both races. Similar conditions 
obtain, in even more marked degree, in the open 
ports of China. The additional argument against 
the Chinese, from this point of view, is that they 
lack, both in their persons and in their homes, the 
scrupulous cleanliness of the Japanese. In Japan 
and throughout the East the tendency is for 
mixed marriages to decrease rather than to 
increase in number. Even when the natural 
obstacles of colour and custom are overcome, 
public opinion arrays itself uncompromisingly 
against the process. 

The Japanese has the advantage of all other 
Orientals in courage and versatility, but there 
his superiority ends. He lacks, for example, 
the more solid qualities of the Chinaman, who 
has not in vain sat for centuries at the feet of 
Confucius and Buddha — ( that steadiness and 
reliability which are recognized in the Celestial 
throughout the East. Nor shares he the China- 
man's almost patriarchal conservatism — that 
aloofness from the petty strife of material things, 
derived from an age-old belief in the superiority 
of moral, as opposed to physical, force. I have 

354 



Where East meets West 

seen a small English boy of ten, when compelled 
to dismount from his bicycle on the outskirts of 
a treaty-port by reason of a crowd of Chinese 
wayfarers to whom his advent seemed a matter of 
no importance, rush in a passion at his obstructors, 
kicking and cuffing right and left, and cursing in 
two languages with a volubility that would have 
astonished Biddy Moriarty herself. But this 
ebullition was received with amused, good- 
natured tolerance — ^^regarded objectively, so to 
speak, as a strange and interesting phenomenon 
— even by those of its victims who bore on their 
shins the marks of the little " foreign devil's " 
boots. In a somewhat similar spirit, no doubt, 
many a Chinese " boy " in a European or 
American household submits with strange docility 
to personal chastisement at the hands of his 
foreign employer — a method of keeping native 
servants " up to the mark " which has not wholly 
gone out of fashion in the open ports of far 
Cathay, but would not do at all in Japan. The 
last thing to which the Japanese will submit is 
indignity of any kind. Such high-handed treat- 
ment extended to him, if not requited at once 
with violence, would involve an action -at -law 
and a claim — usually successful — for substantial 
damages for physical injuries. He considers 
himself the equal, if not the superior, of any other 
species of the genus man. 

The mistake of all others which the white man 

355 



Japan's Inheritance 

makes in his dealings with the Oriental is the 
assumption of superiority. Superior he may con- 
sider himself, but the consciousness of his high 
estate should not appear. As it is, la morgue 
anglalse has become the universal air of the 
foreigner in the Far East. iHe settles in a foreign 
land, draws from it a livelihood, and, at the same 
time, treats its inhabitants as of a lower order of 
creation. The foreign communities in China and 
Japan, as embodiments of Occidental civiliza- 
tions, as microcosms of the West, might have 
accomplished much towards bringing East and 
West together. Who will say that they have 
lived up to their opportunities ? Backed by their 
respective nations and the old appeal to force, 
they indeed aroused the East ; but fifty years 
of intercourse have widened, rather than bridged, 
the gulf. 

When the Oriental turins, a stranger, to the 
White Man's land, how is he received? To the 
East, wishing to return the utisolicited call of the 
West, the latter is " not at home." After forcing 
the East to open its gates and its markets, the 
West adopts a policy of exclusion dictated by the 
fear of competition, and defended on the ground 
of an insulting and hypocritical suggestion of 
racial unfitness. Thus in its dealings with the 
East, the West breaks the golden rule. It does 
not as it would be done by. The " open door " is 
for the West, in the East. The " bang'd, barred, 

356 



where East meets West 

and bolted " door is for the East, when it goes 
West. There it knocks in vain. 

Some four hundred thousand Japanese are 
abroad in foreign lands — nearly half of them in 
Hawaii and the United States of America ; and 
the number of Chinese is considerably greater. 
Neither are welcome anywhere, partly because 
of their vices, but rather, I fancy, for their 
virtues. They are too plain-living, industrious, 
and thrifty. Admittedly the Chinese make 
excellent domestic servants. With all their 
competence they are submissive, and show con- 
tentment with their lot. The Japanese, on the 
other hand, is ambitious. His service is invari- 
ably the stepping-stone to something higher. He 
saves, and before long blossoms out as a tenant- 
farmer and even as a landlord. To some extent, 
therefore, economic considerations, emphasized 
by labour agitators, reinforce the aversion with 
which they are regarded. In the United States 
this is supplemented by suspicion of the Japanese 
on the score of military training, which the 
Yellow Press makes the basis of a periodical 
" scare." But the real secret of the anti-Japanese 
movement which has disgraced the Pacific slope 
since 1906 is racial prejudice. Various pretexts 
have been advanced to disguise the fact. First 
it was the contaminating influence of Japanese 
youths in the State schools. Then it was not 
their moral obliquity, but that there were too 

357 



Japan's Inheritance 

many of them. Then they are declared to be 
the advance-guard of a Japanese invasion. 
Should a Marine Products Company lease land 
in Mexico, it is for a naval station, and an 
extension of the Monroe Doctrine is demanded 
to cope with the new development. Any stick, 
in fact, is good enough. The Japanese, being 
yellow, carries his damnation in his face. 

Although, in Oriental eyes, all Western nations 
are tarred with the same brush o;f selfish incon- 
sistency, Germany and the United States of 
America are the chief offenders. However re- 
signedly Old China may have viewed the Teutonic 
descent on Kiaochou in 1898, Young China will 
never rest till Shantung ceases to 'be the Far 
Eastern repository of the "mailed fist." That, 
to the republican way of thinking, would be no 
more than just retribution for German sympathy 
and assistance extended to the Imperialists during 
the Revolution. When the trouble was at its 
height the compr adore of a well-known foreign 
firm in Shanghai was shot dead by a queueless 
Chinese, who succeeded in making his escape. 
The point of the affair was that the victim served 
a German firm which supplied machine guns and 
ammunition to the Imperialists at Hanyang. In 
Japan, the Kaiser is remembered as the creator 
of the " Yellow Peril," and Germany, accord- 
ingly, is held in general detestation. The part 
played by her in the enforced retrocession of 

358 



Where East meets West 

Liaotung will never be forgotten, or forgiven, 
by the people of Japan. Strategically Germany 
at Kiaochou is almost as much a thorn in the 
side of the Island Power as Russia was at Port 
Arthur ; and in any attempt to terminate the 
" lease " long before its ninety -nine years are 
expired, China will not need to act alone. Anti- 
German articles form a feature of most Tokyo 
papers, and I have even seen it suggested, in 
one of these, that the anti -Japanese legislation 
of the Californians is inspired by some of the 
many Germans who have settled in the States. 

America has mortally offended the East, in 
the first place, by her policy of exclusion. How 
much of the anti -Asiatic sentiment in the United 
States is due to the fact that in the " black 
fringe " about the Gulf of Mexico she has a 
colour problem of her own, how much to the 
invidious work of the trade unions, and how 
much to the war-talk of the Hobsons is her affair. 
The Asiatic knows that he is barred from the 
Land of Liberty because he is not white. Many 
of the ugly features of the anti-Japanese agita- 
tion could, if expedient, be ignored. Acts of 
open interference with Japanese interests could 
not thus be passed by. The Manchurian pro- 
posal of Secretary Knox falls into this category. 
That a Power which persisted in crying " hands 
off " in respect of one continent should demand 
for itself participation in the affairs of another 

359 



Japan's Inheritance 

was enough ; that Japan should a second time 
be deprived of the fruits of a costly war was 
intolerable. " The race of Yamato," said a well- 
known Tokyo publicist — his mind evidently hark- 
ing back to 1895 — "will know how to reply 
to these Imperialistic interferences," and, under 
the surface, the nation seethed. The Japanese 
people have long entertained a kindly, almost 
reverent, feeling towards America. Their dis- 
illusion is now complete. If these things be 
done in the green leaf — when America is more 
of an Atlantic than a Pacific Power — what will 
be done in the dry, whe'n the Panama Canal 
reverses the situation and makes her two coasts 
and her two fleets one? Thus reasoning among 
themselves, the men of the East regard with 
growing suspicion the gathering of American 
naval strength in the Pacific, and in their eyes 
the fortifications at Hawaii, at Guam, and at 
Manila begin to wear a sinister look. 

It still remained for the other branch of the 
Anglo-Saxon race to repair the breach, to give 
the lie to the suggestion that the West looked 
upon the East as nothing but the happy hunt- 
ing-ground of the political concessionaire. One 
could always point to the Anglo -Japanese Alli- 
ance as an embodiment of equality and fair play 
between the white man and his coloured brother. 
In 191 1, however, England threw away a great 
opportunity. 

360 



Where East meets West 

The alliance, of which men had hoped that it 
would prove the Magna Charta of the Yellow 
Race, was reconstructed on a basis unfavourable 
to Japan. While still securing to Great Britain 
all the advantages of the former arrangement 
— including relief from the necessity of main- 
taining a battle-fleet in Far Eastern waters — it 
deprived Japan of England's assistance against 
any Power with whom the latter might happen to 
conclude a Treaty of Arbitration. Though in 
the end the Washington Senate threw out the 
Treaty in question, the mischief had been done. 
The Japanese, of course, understood. Being 
practical people, they accepted the arrangement, 
on the principle that half a loaf is better than 
no bread ; but intelligent Japanese, if they can 
be persuaded to unbosom themselves, will con- 
fess that, in their view, it was the unkindest cut of 
all. England (the people say among themselves, 
while officialdom preserves the sphinx-like atti- 
tude appropriate to such occasions), called upon 
to choose between her friendship for America 
and her alliance with Japan, leaves her ally 
naked to the foe. 

All this prejudice and cold-shouldering — not 

to say antagonism — ;can have but one effect. It 

will drive the two chief branches of the Yellow 

Race into a mutually defensive League. Such 

a tendency is already visible in both countries. 

Japanese statesmen have been wisely listening 

361 



Japan's Inheritance 

of late to " the call of the blood." By skilful 
diplomacy they have reduced to vanishing-point 
the differences between the two countries. The 
Japanese position in Manchuria does not consti- 
tute a bar to friendly relations with China. The 
Chinese recognize .that in resisting the advance 
of Russia, Japan was fighting their battle as well 
as her own ; that were it not for the stricken field 
of Mukden arid the unquenchable heroism of 
Nogi at Port Arthur, Russia would be where 
Japan is now. They admit that the position of 
Japan in South Manchuria is but a small return 
for her enormous sacrifice of blood arid treasure 
and for the untold service she has rendered to 
the East. No bitterness therefore exists be- 
tween the two peoples. On the contrary, 
increased intercourse is producing a better under- 
standing, based on mutual knowledge and 
respect. The Japanese " man in the street," who 
was wont to entertain for his Celestial brother 
a certain measure of contempt, has begun to 
realize that the Chinaman, if less martially 
inclined, is a better man of business than 
himself. Since the war, upwards of eight 
thousand Chinese students have completed their 
education in the Higher Schools of Tokyo and 
Kyoto. Many of them, profoundly impressed 
by the progress made by their neighbour in the 
arts of peace and war, have returned to play 

their part in urging their own countrymen to a 

362 



Where East meets West 

new way of life — 'which, in its essence, is Japan's 
way of Hfe. As to the change in the form of 
government in China, while the Japanese authori- 
ties would have preferred for obvious reasons 
that even the shadow of a monarchy had been 
retained, popular sympathy in Japan was on the 
side of the Revolutionists. The Japanese, as 
a whole, official and unofficial, would have pre- 
ferred — and still prefer — anything to the last of 
all calamities — the partition of China among the 
Powers of the West. 

The real revolution that has taken place in 
China is the recognition of the fundamental value 
of material strength. Of all the lessons the East 
has learned from the West, this is the greatest. 
It is one with which Japan, taught by her own 
history, is in the fullest sympathy. Nations in 
whose eyes the profession of the soldier ever 
ranked the lowest have learned that, for their 
own security, they must call their sons to armls. 
In preparing herself for self-support and self- 
defence China will need assistance. As surely 
as the flower turns towards the sun, she will turn 
to Japan. Chinese warships are now being built 
in Japanese yards ; Japanese officers are engaged 
in the organization of the Chinese land forces, 
and a Japanese expert has been appointed adviser 
to the Department of Communications at Peking. 
Already Chinese papers are urging that important 
works of development in connection with mines 

363 



Japan's Inheritance 

and railways should be entrusted to Japanese, 
rather than tOi foreign, experts. And when the 
hour strikes for the Middle Kingdom to shuffle 
off the toils of Western tutelage, the opportunity 
for which the more virile section of the Yellow 
Race is waiting will have arrived. 

For that supreme moment in the history of 
the East the Japanese, on their part, are pre- 
paring. In a sense, Japan needs China more 
than China needs Japan. China's immensity, 
her vast reserve of ma,n -power, will render her 
valuable as an ally, formidable as a foe. While 
China's immediate needs are military rather than 
commercial, Japan's are commercial rather than 
military. The two nations will, therefore, serve 
as complem,ents the one of the other. Just as 
the Japan,ese look to the development of their 
trade with China — and with the Yangtse Valley 
in particular — to furnish the sin,ews of economic 
strength, the Chinese are looking to the Japanese 
to lay wide and deep the foundation of their 
military strength and teach them the once 
despised, but now essential, art of war. 

No doubt the bare suggestion of an offensive 
and defensive alliance between China and Japan 
as one of the probabilities of the near future 
will suffice to conjure up in many minds that 
still uninterred bogy, the " Yellow Peril." The 
simple fact that the two great branches of the 
Mongolian race muster between them a third of 

364 



Where East meets West 

the world's population wears, on paper, a most 
portentous look. In the view of certain imagina- 
tive publicists — among whom history includes a 
Royal orator — it has bred visions of yellow 
hordes innumerable pouring from the East on to 
the plains of Europe, to launch humanity upon 
an Armageddon of race and colour in which sheer 
weight of numbers prevails. Of this, however, 
the world may rest assured — that if the " Yellow 
Peril " ever materializes in the shape, or any- 
thing like the shape, its exponents assign to it, 
the responsibility for the ensuing cataclysm must 
be laid at the door of the West, and of the repre- 
sentatives of its civilization in the East. Aggres- 
siveness — 'the chief attribute of the West in its 
dealings with the East — is utterly foreign to the 
Chinese character ; prudence is the keynote of 
the Japanese. The union — one might almost say, 
the fusion — of the two races is inevitable ; but 
only a keen and unquenchable sense of resent- 
ment — the memory either of material wrongs 
inflicted or of accumulated insults endured — can 
ever arm the East against the West, or precipitate 
a war of hemispheres. 



365 



CHAPTER XX 
A PEEP INTO THE FUTURE 

Japan's mission — Nations "sunk in misery" — A momentous 
step — The soul of Japan — The quest of the material — 
Dangers of materialism, and of internal unrest — The 
problem of the Pacific — Its real character — Hawaii and 
the Philippines — Common ground for China and Japan 
— The demand for equality — The hope of the East — 
Is it peace ? 

The Japanese believe that they have a mission 
in the world. Agreement as to the scope and 
character of that mission is not general, but such 
differences as exist amount merely to a question 
of degree. Some exponents of J^apanese aims 
give the mission a wider range ; others would 
carry it a step farther. " The Japanese," said 
the late Prince Ito, speaking in the first year 
of the present century, " are the only people 
in the Orient who understand the importance 
and significance of two civilizations " ; and he 
went on to say that in his view it was the " noMe 
mission " of Japan to play the part of an inter- 

366 



A Peep into the Future 

mediary between the East and the West. By 
acting at once as " the advocate of the East 
and the harbinger of the West " Japan, he hoped, 
might bring the two civihzations into harmony, 
and, perhaps, evolve out of the twain a new 
world of thought — a philosophy that would 
appeal strongly and successfully to two -thirds 
of the human race. 

This was ten years ago, or more. Since then 
many things have happened. There was, indeed, 
the Anglo -Japanese Alliance to be set on the credit 
side ; but, on the other, the war with Russia ; 
the outbreak of anti-Japanese sentiment in the 
United States, British Columbia, and Australia, 
in the sequel of that war ; the attempted inter- 
vention of the United States between China and 
Japan in the matter of the Manchurian railways ; 
the annexation of Korea — undoubtedly hastened 
by the American proposal ; the bowdlerization 
of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in response to 
American sentiment ; and, last, but not least, 
the revolution in China. 

These happenings have not been without their 
influence on Japanese thought and policy. As 
a net result there has been a narrowing of the 
high ideal, the noble ambition which the leaders 
of Japanese thought had set before themselves. 
No views are too long for the statesmen of the 
Island Empire, but they are practical men, not 
visionaries. There has been an awakening from 

367 



Japan's Inheritance 

the dream of Ito. The mediaries of the East, 
rebuffed by the West, despair of its fulfilment. 
Later, perhaps, if circumstances change for the 
better, they may return with a new appeal ; but, 
for the present, they are disposed to fall back 
upon the lesser mission more recently set forth 
by " the Sage of Waseda." ^ That is to take 
a leading part in " the glorious work of civilizing 
and developing two Oriental nations deeply sunk 
in misery." If with this we couple a still later 
utterance from the same exponent of Japanese 
thought, the mission of Japan assumes a more 
definite shape : " China is the true field for 
Japanese expansion in the future." 

One of these miserable nations has already 
been drawn within the pale of the Japanese 
polity — unquestionably, for its own ultimate 
good. No one who has studied the relations 
between Korea and the three Powers interested 
in its fate can have entertained any hope that 
the independence of the ancient Hermit King- 
dom could have been much longer maintained. 
In their treatment of the Korean population the 
Japanese have erred, at times ; but, unless all 
the omens are at fault, there will be fewer mis- 
takes in the future. On 'the whole, the prob- 
abilities are that the Koreans will fare better 
as subjects of the Japanese Emperor than they 

I Count Okuma, so known because of his association with 
the Waseda University, which he founded. 

368 



A Peep into the Future 

would under Russian or Chinese rule, or under 
the weak and corrupt adminiistration of the 
displaced dynasty. 

The annexation of Korea was one of those 
political acts the consequences of which will 
reverberate through the ages. Japan's future 
course cannot but be profoundly affected thereby. 
To begin with, it has changed not only her 
political status, but her whole relationship both 
to the continent of Asia and to the Pacific area. 
While still an island State, she has become a 
continental Power, neighbour to two of the great 
land-empires of the world. Her position re- 
sembles that of England under the fifth Henry, 
when that island Power sought to hold sway 
over the half of France — though, as we shall 
see, there is an important difference. Stra- 
tegically, Japan may be the weaker ; she has 
now a land-frontier to defend. Politically and 
racially, it has strengthened her enormously. 
Nevertheless, the very deliberation with which 
the step was taken carries proof of its momentous 
character. Japan held the peninsula in the 
hollow of her hand for five years before annexa- 
tion was resolved upon. Her triumph over 
Russia had brought her to the parting of the 
ways. That the fateful course at length was 
taken may be regarded as showing that Japan 
had finally decided upon her future role. Destiny 
called her to the leadership of the Orient. 

369 A A 



Japan's Inheritance -^ 

The better to fulfil it, she abandoned for ever 
the old policy of isolation, and entered the lists 
of Welt-politik a continental State. 

Before speculating upon the future course of 
Japan's foreign policy it will be necessary to make 
an inquiry. Certain changes are now in pro- 
gress within her own borders. Will these 
changes enhance or impair her fitness for the 
task of guiding the political fortunes of four 
hundred million souls? National character and 
national stability are the prime requisites of a 
directing Power, Will these be maintained at 
the necessary high level in the future? 

The soul of Japan is a highly complex affair. 
It has been well defined as " the resultant of all 
the religious and moral influences of the East." 
That was the Japanese soul of fifty years ago. 
Since then its composition has been profoundly 
modified by the influences of the West. Allow- 
ing for the elevating but strictly limited effect 
of Christianity, these influences have tended, on 
the whole, to materialism and irreligion. Coming, 
as they did, at a time of social and political up- 
heaval, they produced a state of moral flux, of 
spiritual darkness and confusion, in which the 
whole nation still walks. In what state will it 
emerge when thfe fires of shifting circumstande 
are passed? The answer to this question bears 
closely on the whole future of the East. 

When, a generation ago, the soul of Japan was 

370 



A Peep into the Future 

put into the melting-pot, it was in the form of 
bushido. The term, of comparatively recent 
coinage, signifies the creed of the bushi, or 
samurai. The late Emperor himself defined it 
as " the way of loyalty," pursuable as well by 
the " peaceful citizen " as by the " soldier under 
arms." 'Briefly, it embodies the principle of 
putting country before self in all things. The 
following stanza, written by a Japanese student 
at the time of the Russian War, is considered by 
Professor Lloyd " a good exemplification of 
bushido in its modern applications "•:— 

"When holy Peace on Eastern shores 
Her mellow light once more outpours, 
Then, the wise Trade-god's wand in hand, 
We'll build the glories of this land. 
But when upon the battlefield 
Flashes the sword, to you we yield 
The post of honour. Strike apace. 
Brave scions of a martial race ! " 

At the time when the samurai laid down his 
two swords, his attitude towards comtnerce and 
all that pertained thereto was one of contempt. 
Already, therefore, in admitting the Trade -god's 
share in the glories of the land, he has travelled 
far. And if the samurai, without a pang, has 
exchanged the sword which was his soul for 
the soroban, how much more gross must have 
become the spiritual darkness of the remaining 
95 per cent, of the population ! 

371 



Japan's Inheritance 

The East has always been the home of the 
Ideal. Esteeming the higher things of life as 
of greater moment than the material, it has for 
ages worshipped Thought rather than Action; 
it has given to the world its systems of religion, 
philosophy, and ethics. Meanwhile the West, 
exalting the Material, has pursued it unre- 
mittingly, till one might almost say, in the words 
of the Evangel, that it has " gained the whole 
world and lost its own soul." The feature of 
the New Age is this — that the East, laying aside 
its quest of the Ideal, is going the way of the 
West. Japan was the first to take the broad 
road. Her youth of to-day is the most 
materialistic on the face of this earth, and the 
nation as a whole has embraced, not the Gospel 
according to St. Matthew or St. Mark, but the 
gospel of Mammon. " These are your gods, O 
Israel ! " Such was the cry of the West to 
the East. Having reached Yamato, it is now 
being passed on to the Orient at large. Seeing 
that Japan has accepted the new creed, and to 
some purpose, the East en masse is flinging 
philosophy to the winds, and is bowing down 
to the same divinities of Trade, Wealth, and 
Material Bower. 

For the East, as for the West, the issue will 
be vast and strange. But if Japan is to main- 
tain her place at the head of the Oriental world, 
she must beware. Materialism inclines to greed, 

372 



A Peep into the Future 

and greed to an insensate ambition, which con- 
siders not the welfare of the subject race. Mere 
exploitation of the " miserable nations " will help 
neither Japan nor them. Even a Chinaman will 
fail to see that exploitation at the hands of the 
Japanese is any better than exploitation by a 
Russian, a German, or a Britisher. Unless the 
relation between the island people and their 
continental kinsmen be one of co-operation for 
the latter's good, the " mission " of Japan will 
not succeed. 

Nor will Japan succeed if there be unrest 
within her borders. There is real danger in 
materialistic ideas and theories of popular con- 
trol if their growth be too rapid. Unhappily, 
the forces of conservatism have identified them- 
selves with those of militarism and the bureau- 
cracy — which is hardly in their favour. We have 
seen how swift the spread of revolutionary ideas 
in China, how sudden their denouement . Japan 
cannot afford to run such risk. The Throne is 
both the foundation and the crown of the 
Japanese polity. All that is best in Japanese 
national life — patriotism, self-sacrifice, courage in 
the field, and a disregard for death which seems 
to us sublime — all these spring from and are 
bound up with the idea of loyalty to the Throne 
and its sister grace of ancestor-worship. Any 
weakening of these fundamental motives would 
undermine the whole fabric of the State. 

373 



Japan's Inheritance 



Socialism may suit China; it would mortally- 
hurt Japan. That this ill plant should grow is 
inevitable. None can wonder that the authori- 
ties should determine to make a dwarf tree of 
it, or blame them if they succeed. 

The " problem' of the Padfi'c " is commonly 
deemed a matter of ships and guns. Its scope, 
however, is wider than at first sight appears . We 
have it on the authority of Mr. Secretary Knox 
that " the Far East is part of the problem' of 
the Pacific," and that the United States " views 
with disfavour any extension of Japanese terri- 
torial influence in the outlying portions of the 
Chinese Empire." But " the problem of the 
Pacific " is more than naval and more than 
territorial. It is racial. And, curiously enough, 
the United States has done more than any other 
Power to make it so. Generally speaking, the 
eastern and southern fringes of the Pacific area 
are tenanted by the white races, the western 
by the yellow. The regions over which the white 
man exercises lordship are sparsely inhabited — 
some, indeed, are not inhabited at all ; and the 
birth-rate in the countries which supply this 
population tends to decrease. On the other 
hand, the Japanese and Chinese lands are densely 
peopled. The population of the Japanese 
Empire, as a whole, increases at the rate of 
three-quarters of a million annually. With 
regard to China, no reliable returns are avail- 

374 



A Peep into the Future 

able ; but assuming the ratio of increase to be 
the same — it probably is greater — the population 
of China is growing at the rate of five millions 
annually. The disposal of this surplus Oriental 
population, in view of the inadeqi:^acy and 
hostility of the Occidental population, constitutes 
the real problem of the Pacific. 

There is a part of the Eastern Pacific where 
the ascendancy of the White Race is not so pro- 
nounced. Throughout South' America, where the 
inhabitants are of mixed descent, the colour line 
is drawn less hard and fast. The conditions 
of life, the climate, and opportunities for work 
are regarded as very favourable to Orientals, 
and the at -present absence of race -feeling is, 
of course, a great recommendation. Conse- 
quently emigration to several of the southern 
Republics proceeds at a brisk rate. In contrast 
with its voluntary restriction of emigr^ation to 
what is commonly known as " the Pacific slope," 
the Tokyo Government gives special encourage- 
ment to the South American branch of the Toyo 
Kisen Kaisha, whose main line runs, under a 
working arrangement with the Pacific Mail 
Steamship Company, to San Francisco. Five 
thousand Japanese have settled in Peru alone, 
and many others are finding their way to Brazil, 
Columbia, Chili, and Argentina. In view of this 
movement every effort is being made in Pan- 
American circles to persuade the Latin Republics 

375 



Japan's Inheritance 



of South America to fall into line with the North 
in their attitude towards Oriental immigration. 
Even the Monroe Doctrine is enlisted for the 
purpose. Those members of the Washington 
Senate who make it their business to keep an 
eye on the Far East in general, and Japan in 
particular, introduced in June, 1 9 1 2, a resolution 
to the effect that the United States would view 
with disfavour the acquisition, even by private 
corporations or individuals, of any land on the 
American continent which might serve as a base 
of operations, etc. Some such extension of the 
famous Doctrine was in the opinion of these 
Senators neceissary because a Japanese marine 
products company, which had secured fishing 
rights for some distance along the Mexican 
coast, had applied for the lease of a small piece 
of land whereon to erect a factory. By such 
means as this South America is also to be 
dragged into the racial maelstrom. 

The Pacific has been called " the Ocean of 
the Future." That future is already with us. 
On the one hand, the Panama Canal, an 
accomplished fact, makes the United States, in 
a very real sense, a Pacific Power. Austral- 
asia has also a fleet in being, with a trade and 
policy of her own. On the other hand, China, 
with a population more than double that of the 
two Americas, is awake. Japan, her neighbour, 
has reached the status of a World-Power. 

376 



A Peep into the Future 

Russia, resurgent from the disasters of 1905, 
has not abandoned all hope of territorial and 
commercial development in the Far East. Her 
recent action in Outer Mongolia points to the 
intention to make of her Trans-Siberian system 
a pathway to Peking which for no part of its 
course would pass through territory dominated 
by another Power, Great Britain is still, on the 
basis of trade, the greatest of Pacific Powersi, 
with immense possibilities before her. For all 
the prize is wealth, by means of commerce. With 
all force is the arbiter and ultimate weapon. So, 
unless moderation and toleration prevail, com- 
petition, sharpened by racial enmity, must end 
in strife. 

Potentially, and on paper, the United States 
holds the supremacy of the Pacific. But the vast- 
ness of the area renders such supremacy relative. 
To assert the command of the sea in Puget Sound, 
and to assert it in the Far East, 5,000 miles 
away, are two very different things. In Hawaii 
and the Philippines America has given hostages 
to fortune. Prior to their acquisition she was 
practically invulnerable ; the mere possession of 
these outlying dominions is a present source of 
weakness. All the fortifications of Diamond 
Head and Pearl Harbour cannot get over the 
fact that a third of the population of Hawaii 
consists of Japanese. The defence of the Philip- 
pines places the American fleet at a further dis- 

377 



Japan's Inheritance 

advantage. Manila is but two days' steam from 
Formosa. If a real Pacific coast " scare " kept 
the greater part of the fleet in that part of the 
theatre of operations, or it were decoyed in the 
direction of Hawaii, the launching of an expedi- 
tion from Taiwan against the Philippines might 
be accomplished with comparative ease. In- 
vasion, for either Power, presents almost insuper- 
able difficulties. Such advantage as there is rests 
with the Japanese. Given the command of the 
sea, they could occupy various points on the 
seaboard of the Western States from which it 
would be difficult to dislodge them. On the 
other hand, invasion of Japan by American forces 
is out of the question ; but there is a danger that 
the entanglement of Japan in a struggle with 
the United States might be regarded by Russia 
as an opportunity for a war of revenge. In that 
event, assuming that the Anglo -Japanese Alliance 
still existed, Great Britain also would be involved. 
This would mean the break up of the balance of 
power in Europe, with consequences of the 
gravest character to the peace of the whole 
world. 

" 'How great a matter a little fire kindleth ! " 
All these appalling consequences may yet flow 
from the suspicious, illiberal and intransigent 
attitude of a single American State. 

Si vis pacem, para helium. The brutal doc- 
trine on which Western polities have been built 



A Peep into the Future 

up is penetrating the " myriad mind " of the East. 
Japan, having proved its efficacy, intends to hold 
fast by her experience. China beheves and, with 
all a convert's zeal, will make up for her past 
unbelief. With so vast a population to draw 
upon and Japan's example before her, the intro- 
duction of conscription, even on a narrow basis, 
gives immeasurable possibilities of power. In 
her own borders she has already had good 
schooling in the art of war. From a struggle 
between North and South — should it com'e to that 
— the Celestial millions would arise a different 
nation, shaken into virility — a New China on a 
military basis, a China prepared at last to give 
practical recognition of the fact that, in opposing 
Occidental discrimination against, and depres- 
sion of, the Yellow Race, Japan is fighting a 
bigger battle than her own. 

When the Yellow Race is in a position to 
enforce its claim to equality by force of arms 
it will be put on the same footing as the White 
— not before. It will be of no use for Japan to 
work for the uplifting of subject nations, only 
to find that recognition as equals is still denied 
herself and them. Since nothing less than 
material power avails in diplomacy, her task will 
be to bring the entire Yellow Race to such a pitch 
of naval and military strength as will enable it 
to demand equality from the West. The alter- 
native will be the policy of " Asia for the 

379 



Japan's Inheritance 

Asiatics " and the expulsion of the white man 
from the Orient. 

This, then, is the destiny of Japan — by influ- 
ence, by example, by help to raise the East. 
In this lurks no aggression ; from this need 
flow no strife. But with nationhood comes pride, 
which cannot abide contumely — and strength, 
which can avenge it. All therefore depends 
upon the West, upon its attitude towards the 
risen, and the rising. East. Let it abjure the 
lust of dominion, let it have done with racial 
hate ; let it put forth the right hand of fellow- 
ship, that "the twain may meet" — in peace. 

So may Japan press on to the fulfilment of her 
larger mission. 



380 



INDEX 



Adams, Will, grave of, 68 
Ainus, of Yezo, 246-7 
Akaishi (Koshu) Mts., 102, 105 
Ama-no-hashidate, 71 
Amaterasu (Sun-goddess), 13, 14 
America, Japanese relations with, 

359, 367 

Amma (shampooer), 59 

Andon (lamp), 295 

Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 338 ; recon- 
struction of, 360 

Arbitration Treaty, effect of, 361 

Arima, spa, 210, 216 

Asama, 162 ct seq., 56 ; lava stream 
of, 169, 57 

Atami, 215 ; coast in vicinity of, iii 

Awaji, 15 

Azumayama, 143, 145 

Azusa valley, 89, 104 

Bandaisan, 170 et seq., 143 

Basaltic cliffs, 73, 240 ; " causeways," 

243 
Basha, 47, 87 
Bento, 45 
Beppu, spa, 217 
Biwa, lake, 93 
Blindness, causes of, 295 
Buddhism, 298 
Bushido, 371 

Camphor, 336 

Cherry-blossoms, 285 ; under snow, 27 

Chikuma valley, 54 



Children, Japanese, 291 

China, Japanese relations with, 362- 

4; 379 
Chochin (paper lantern), 179 
Christianity, in Japan, 301 
Chuzenji, lake, 94 
Climate, 25 ct seq. ; and health, 35 
Coaling, at Moji and Nagasaki, 238 . 
Coast scenery, 1 1 1-2 
Coasting steamers, 151 ; 248-9 
Concubinage, 304 
Constitutionalism, 326 ct seq. 
Country-folk, physique of, 266 
Crater lakes, Hakone, jj ; Kirishima, 

no ; Shiranesan, 145 ; Oregon, 

180 ; Tonami, 219 

Daikan (great cold), 34 
Daikon (radish), 26 
Daimyo, 315-6, 258-9 
Daiyagawa, 94 
Deshima (Nagasaki), 228 
Diet, Imperial, 320 
Divers, 94, 269 
Doyo (great heat), 34 ; 52 

Earthquakes, 191 et seq, ; effect on 
character, 23, 194 ; earthquake 
weather, 195 

Educational system, 294 

Eino, spa, 221 

Elections, parliamentary, 320, 321 

Enoshima, 69 

Erosion, rapid, examples of, 66, 113 



381 



Index 



Fires, 206 ; 273, 287 

Fishing industry, 266 ; bounty on, 

267 ; in Korea, 341 
Foreign settlements (former), 282-4 
Formosa, 332 etseq. 
Fortified zones, 309-10 
Fossa Magna, 102, 107 
Fuji, 114 etscq. ; mirrors of, 77, 95 
Futami (Man and Wife Rocks), T^ 

Ganjusan, 137 

Geisha, 306 ; 224, 232 

Go-kinai (Five Home Provinces), 

20 ; 282 
Gold mining, in Korea, 340 
Guides (annai), 39 

Habu, crater-harbour, 152 

Hachiman, Taro, 246 

Hakodate, 243 ; 310 

Hakone, district, 76 ; lake, JT, 95 

Harakiri, 314 

Harinoki Pass, 108 

Hawaii, 377 

Hayakawa (Hakone), 76 ; (Akaishi), 

106 
Heavenly spear, 239 
Hibachi (fire-box), 30 
Hibara, lake, 113, 175 
Hibiya Park, Tokyo, 278 
Hida Mts, (Hida-Etchu, or Japanese 

Alps), 102, 104 
Hideyoshi, Taiko, 329 
Hodakayama, 102, 104 
Horse's Bone (crater-lip), 238 

Ideographs, 294 

Immigration, Oriental, 356 et seq. 
Inawashiro, lake, 93, 143 
Inland Sea, 242 ; loi 
Ishikari, river, 83 

Ito, Prince, on Ministerial responsi- 
bility, 318 
Izu Peninsula, 42 ; 88 ; 107, iii ; 214 



Japanese-English, 296-7 

Jimmu Tenno, 14, 226 

Jinrikisha, 47 ; invention of, 48 ; 

rubber-tyred, 276 
Jizo (god), 77 

Jtcnsa {policeman), 213, 223 
Jwisai, a succulent w^eed, 252 
Junsai-numa, lake, 252 

Ka^o (chair), 48 

Kagoshima, Castle, 227 ; Gulf, 237 

Kaimondake, 133, 182 

Karuizawa, 56, 57 ; 212 

Katsura, Prince, 326 

Kawachi, battleship, launch of, 312 

Kegon Fall, 109 ; 91 

Kii Peninsula, 42, 79 ; 210 

Kinkwazan, 70, loi 

Kirifuri Fall, 92 

Kirishima, range and spa, 182, 221, 
251 ; crater-lake, no 

Kisogawa, 84 

Kitakami, river, 80 ; range, 112 

Kobe, 19, 283 

Komagatake (Koshu), 102 ; (Yezo), 251 

Konsei-toge, 107 

Korea, acquisition of, 337 et seq. ; de- 
velopment of, 340-1 ; effect on 
Japan, 368 

Koshu (Akaishi) Mts., 98, 102, 105 

Kurile Is. (Chishima), 321 

Kurobegawa, 89, 105 

Kuroshiwo, influence on climate, 28, 
80 ; on crops, 257 

Kusatsu, 57, 58 ; 215, 218 

Kuwanto Plain, 82, 271 

Kyoto, 280 

Kyushu, 225 et seq. 

Lagoon (Hamana), 73 ; (Tonegaw^a), 

82 
Land, system of tenure 258-9 
Lava stream, 169 ; 57 
Lepers, 58 ; baths for, 218 
Lotus, 36 ; 114, 115 



382 



Index 



Maiko (young geisha), 306 

Manchurian Railways, 229-30 ; 36/ 

Marriages, mixed, 352-3 

Materialism, pursuit of, 372 

Matsuri (festival), 233 ; 168, 258 

Matsushima, 70 

Milne, Prof. John, on Oshima, 15c; ; 
on Bandaisan, 171 ; on earthquake- 
proof buildings, 208 

Mineral springs, 209 et scq. 

Mission, Japan's, 366-8 ; 380 

Missionaries, 300-2 ; 297 

Mitsubishi Dockyard, 231 

Miyajima, 71 

Miyanoshita, 76 ; springs, 215 

Monroe Doctrine, 376 

Morality, 302 et seq. ; commercial, 

349-50 
Motomachi, 21 
Motomura (Oshima), 152 
Motosu, lake, 95 

Moxa, as means of punishment, 292 
Muroran, 254 
Myogisan, " cathedral rocks," 99 

Nachi, waterfall, 90, 91 

Nagasaki, 19, 231, 284 ; festivals, 232 
et seq. 

Nakasendo, 55 

Nantaisan, 75, 94, 109 

Nasu, volcano, 146 ; baths, 211, 215 

Naturalist's (Elakiston's) line, 245 

Naumann, theory of Oshima, 156 

Nikko, 74 ; 66 ; waterfalls, 89 

Noboribetsu, spa, 220 

Nogi, his Invocation, 235 ; his sacri- 
fice, 314 

Nunobiki Falls, 92 

Nyiihai (rainy season), 34, 37 

Ogasawara (Bonin) Is., 330 

Oigawa, 85 

Ojigoku (Hakone), view from, 172 ; 

(Tateyama), 219 
Okinawa (Lu-chu), 332 



Okuma, Count, 317, 368 
Onuma, lake, no, 251 
Ordeal, trial by, 236 
Osaka, 272 ; 271 

Oshima (Vries Island), 18, 150 ct scq. 
Ota Dokwan, 271 

Otodome (" noise-stopping ") Cas- 
cade, 90 
Otonashigawa, 79 

Pacific, problem of the, 374 ct scq. 

Passes (togc), height of, 107 

Peking, 377 ; 352 

Philippines, 377 

Pit-dwellers, 246-7 

Press Bureau, 352 

Press, foreign local, 351 ; 297 

Railway system, 42 et seq. ; Manchu- 
rian and Korean, 229 ; Tokyo, 276 

Rapids, Tenryugawa, 86-87 j Kuma- 
gawa, 240 

Rein, J. J., 237 

Revolution, Chinese, 379 

Rice, 261-2 

Riots, tramway, 276 ; Constitutional 
326 

River scenery, 88-9 

Romaji, 295 

Sagami, scenery of, 67, 69 

Saigo Takamori, 227 

Sakurajima, 237 ; eruption of pumice 

137 ; hot-springs, 217 ; sugar cane, 

26 
Samurai, 315-17 
Sapporo, 83 

Sasago-toge (tunnel), 46 
Satsuma rebellion, 237, 316 
Schist ranges, 100, loi ; 65 
Seiyukai, 324-7 
Sendai, 286 ; bay of, 70 
Sendai-Niigata line, 31 
Shibu, spa, 214, 219 ; pass, 58, 108 



383 



Index 



Shikotsu, lake, 83, 99, 254 
Shimabara, gulf, ignis fatutis^ 236 
Shimoiioseki-Fusan route, 45 ; 229 
Shinanogawa, 81 
Shinto, 298 ; 15 
Shiobara, spa, 215 
Shiojiri, pass, 107 
Shiraito, falls, 90 
Shirakawa, 183 

Shiranesan (Kusatsu), geyser-like 
activity, 145 ; composition of lakes, 
147 ; (Nikko), 75, 94 ; (Koshu), 102 
Shiribeshisan, 253 ; 147 
Shuzenji, spa, 215 
Silk industry, 262-4 ; 55 
Soft contours, 62 et seq. 
Solfataras, 76, 210, 219, 250 
Somna, of Oshima, 155 ; of Asosan, 

182 
Soul of Japan, 370 
South America, emigration to, 375 
Subsidence in volcanic regions, 143, 

161, 184 
Sugar-cane, 26 
Suicide, 168, 314 
Sulphur, industry, 250 ; 331 
Suwa, lake, 54 ; skating contests on, 

31 

Takachiho, 238 ; 14 

Tansan, mineral water, 217 

Tarumai, 149 ; 254 

Tea, varieties of, 262 

Timber-felling, 84 

Tobacco cultivation, 241 ; monopoly, 
53 

Tokaido, railvs;ay, 42, 44, 277; fifty- 
three stages, 85 

Tokonoma, 16, 50 

Tokyo, 271 et seq, 

Tonegawa, 82 

Torii, limit of climbing for women, 
136, 154 ; Torii-toge, 84 



Tos.iima, cliffs, 151 
Towada, lake, 93 
Toya, lake, 93 
Toyama, bay, iii 
Travel clubs, 264-5 
Tsubuka, mountain, 68 
Tsugaru, strait, 29, 243 
Tsuri-bashi (rope bridges), 106 
Tsuruga, 44 ; 230 
Tsushima, strait, 29, 230 
Tunnels (railway), 46 

Unzen, spa, 219 ; volcano, 182, 236 
Usui-toge (pass) and tunnels, 46 ; 60, 
107 

Vesuvian type of eruption, 144-5 ; 

lava, 169 
Volcanic soil, fertility of, 241 
Volcano Bay (Uchi-ura), 248, 253 
Volcanoes, veneration of, 23, 134 

ct seq. 

Wada-toge, 56 

Waseda, university, 368 

Water, a factor in volcanic action, 

142-3 
Waterfalls, 89-92 

Yabakei, 73 ; 235 

Yadoya (inn), 49 

Yakegatake, 105, 147 

Yamanaka Onsen, 179 

Yarigatake (" Spear Peak "), 102, 104 

" Yellow Peril," 364 

Yokohama, 19, 282 

Yorotaki (Filial Piety Cascade), 91 

Yoshiwara, 279 ; motives of inmates, 

305 
Yulo-ing, as an exercise, 266 
Yumoto, lake, 75 ; spa, 2i6 
Yunotaki, 91 



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